A notification about App-suggested ads appeared on the lockscreen this morning. Is there some sort of rolling push that Google is using, as
these have been around for some time? I thought I'd seen this notice previously and disabled ads in Settings, but when I checked they were
on. They're off now.
More privacy settings, Google section, I tap on Ads at the bottom.
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
A notification about App-suggested ads appeared on the lockscreen this
morning. Is there some sort of rolling push that Google is using, as
these have been around for some time? I thought I'd seen this notice
previously and disabled ads in Settings, but when I checked they were
on. They're off now.
On my Samsung Galaxy A56 phone, under Settings -> Security and Privacy
More privacy settings, Google section, I tap on Ads at the bottom.
Under Ad privacy, all the options are disabled: ad topics, app-suggested
ads, and ad measurement.
There is a Delete advertising ID which says "Apps can no longer use this advertising ID to show you personalized ads". That doesn't say the apps cannot show you ads, but won't have an ID by which to track you. Of
course, since most users don't disable/delete the ID, fingerprinting can identify you as part of a smaller populace.
Reset advertising ID just assigns you a new one. After deleting your advertising ID, you may see a menu option to "Get new advertising ID"
(in place of the "Reset advertising ID" option). Don't touch that;
else, you've effectively reset the ID instead of deleting it.
I think in Android 12, and earlier, you could only reset your ID. Don't
know when Google introduced the delete ID option. Apps can have their
own ad settings, like incorporate their own ID.
Back under the More privacy settings page, under the Google section,
Activity controls configure your Google account privacy settings. For Personalized Recommendations in Search services, I have that off. I
turned off Play Personalization. I left Web & App Activity enabled
since sometimes it is handy in Google Maps. The shortest interval for auto-delete of this history is 3 months, and that's what I use. Same
for location history (where Google Maps can show where I've been). I couldn't give a gnat's fart about Youtube history, but I cannot disable
it separately of the other auto-delete options, like have Youtube
history auto-deleted after a week, but others auto-delete after 3
months. However, back in the activity screen, I can entirely turn off Youtube history. Nothing to auto-delete since it's not recorded. Under Personalized ads, it is off.
Back in the more privacy settings page, under Google section, there is
the Android personalization service. That monitors your app usage, text input, and browsing habits to provide "personalized" suggestions and recommendations. Instead of tapping the on/off toggle, tap on the entry
to get more info. No thanks. Turned that off. I don't need any
handholding nor any of the AI crap.
Back in the more privacy settings page is a Samsung section. Decide if
you want to keep sending telemetry data in the background to Samsung.
They collect this data to promote their other services and products
along with improving software performance. I turned that off. Maybe
you want to help them out.
Lastly in the more privacy settings page under the Samsung section is Personal data intelligence. More AI bloatware. More data harvesting.
It can also change system settings. Supposedly Samsung claims the
analysis is entirely local, except why would it be changing system
settings unless directed by Samsung, or their KNOX and KEEP
technologies? I turned this off.
https://research.samsung.com/data-intelligence https://quebectest.com/en/samsung-personal-data-intelligence-disable-privacy
You don't need to be paranoid about your privacy to want your phone
consuming less CPU, and save battery power by eliminating all this backgrounded AI or "assistance" crap.
VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
A notification about App-suggested ads appeared on the lockscreen this
morning. Is there some sort of rolling push that Google is using, as
these have been around for some time? I thought I'd seen this notice
previously and disabled ads in Settings, but when I checked they were
on. They're off now.
On my Samsung Galaxy A56 phone, under Settings -> Security and Privacy
More privacy settings, Google section, I tap on Ads at the bottom.
Under Ad privacy, all the options are disabled: ad topics, app-suggested
ads, and ad measurement.
There is a Delete advertising ID which says "Apps can no longer use this
advertising ID to show you personalized ads". That doesn't say the apps
cannot show you ads, but won't have an ID by which to track you. Of
course, since most users don't disable/delete the ID, fingerprinting can
identify you as part of a smaller populace.
Reset advertising ID just assigns you a new one. After deleting your
advertising ID, you may see a menu option to "Get new advertising ID"
(in place of the "Reset advertising ID" option). Don't touch that;
else, you've effectively reset the ID instead of deleting it.
I think in Android 12, and earlier, you could only reset your ID. Don't
know when Google introduced the delete ID option. Apps can have their
own ad settings, like incorporate their own ID.
Back under the More privacy settings page, under the Google section,
Activity controls configure your Google account privacy settings. For
Personalized Recommendations in Search services, I have that off. I
turned off Play Personalization. I left Web & App Activity enabled
since sometimes it is handy in Google Maps. The shortest interval for
auto-delete of this history is 3 months, and that's what I use. Same
for location history (where Google Maps can show where I've been). I
couldn't give a gnat's fart about Youtube history, but I cannot disable
it separately of the other auto-delete options, like have Youtube
history auto-deleted after a week, but others auto-delete after 3
months. However, back in the activity screen, I can entirely turn off
Youtube history. Nothing to auto-delete since it's not recorded. Under
Personalized ads, it is off.
Back in the more privacy settings page, under Google section, there is
the Android personalization service. That monitors your app usage, text
input, and browsing habits to provide "personalized" suggestions and
recommendations. Instead of tapping the on/off toggle, tap on the entry
to get more info. No thanks. Turned that off. I don't need any
handholding nor any of the AI crap.
Back in the more privacy settings page is a Samsung section. Decide if
you want to keep sending telemetry data in the background to Samsung.
They collect this data to promote their other services and products
along with improving software performance. I turned that off. Maybe
you want to help them out.
Lastly in the more privacy settings page under the Samsung section is
Personal data intelligence. More AI bloatware. More data harvesting.
It can also change system settings. Supposedly Samsung claims the
analysis is entirely local, except why would it be changing system
settings unless directed by Samsung, or their KNOX and KEEP
technologies? I turned this off.
https://research.samsung.com/data-intelligence
https://quebectest.com/en/samsung-personal-data-intelligence-disable-privacy >>
You don't need to be paranoid about your privacy to want your phone
consuming less CPU, and save battery power by eliminating all this
backgrounded AI or "assistance" crap.
Oh, and under Settings -> Security and privacy -> Security section,
Account security -> Samsung account security, scroll down to the User Agreements section, and disable "Get news and special offers" and
"Improve personalized ads with Samsung account data".
I'm not sure how much of what is on your Samsung is on my Xiaomi,
perhaps under a different heading.
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
I'm not sure how much of what is on your Samsung is on my Xiaomi,
perhaps under a different heading.
Phone makers like to customize their instance of Android to
differentiate themselves. Even settings can be grouped differently;
however, often the options have similar names.
Try using the search box
in Settings to see if you find similarly named options wherever the
phone maker put them.
On 2026-07-11, VanguardLH wrote:
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
I'm not sure how much of what is on your Samsung is on my Xiaomi,
perhaps under a different heading.
Phone makers like to customize their instance of Android to
differentiate themselves. Even settings can be grouped differently;
however, often the options have similar names.
Of course YMMV but I'd say that's stupid. Wouldn't they want people to
be able to use their phones more easily if they're already used to the platform?
Try using the search box in Settings to see if you find similarly
named options wherever the phone maker put them.
Sigh. The Windows Vista approach to UI discoverability? :-P
Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 2026-07-11, VanguardLH wrote:
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
I'm not sure how much of what is on your Samsung is on my Xiaomi,
perhaps under a different heading.
Phone makers like to customize their instance of Android to
differentiate themselves. Even settings can be grouped differently;
however, often the options have similar names.
Of course YMMV but I'd say that's stupid. Wouldn't they want people to
be able to use their phones more easily if they're already used to the
platform?
But then that portion of customization is lost. If Google prevented any customization, all phones at the same Android version would all look the same, behave the same, and everything, like settings, would be found the
same way. However, disabling all customization means losing some
hardware support, too, since different phones can have different
hardware.
Try using the search box in Settings to see if you find similarly
named options wherever the phone maker put them.
Sigh. The Windows Vista approach to UI discoverability? :-P
You have another and better method of finding options in the hundreds of
them on the phone? Wandering through all levels of settings trying to
find where a phone maker happened to put an option is a lot of wasted
time.
Never used the Start menu (instead of the search box, or you disabled
the superfluous search box) in the taskbar to search for item in the
Start menu? No need to scroll through trying to find an entry. Just
start typing it in. A menu-ized list is not necessarily the easiest and often not the fastest method to find an entry.
On 2026-07-12, VanguardLH wrote:
Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 2026-07-11, VanguardLH wrote:
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
I'm not sure how much of what is on your Samsung is on my Xiaomi,
perhaps under a different heading.
Phone makers like to customize their instance of Android to
differentiate themselves. Even settings can be grouped differently;
however, often the options have similar names.
Of course YMMV but I'd say that's stupid. Wouldn't they want people to
be able to use their phones more easily if they're already used to the
platform?
But then that portion of customization is lost. If Google prevented any
customization, all phones at the same Android version would all look the
same, behave the same, and everything, like settings, would be found the
same way. However, disabling all customization means losing some
hardware support, too, since different phones can have different
hardware.
You can do customization without breaking consistency of existing
options. You could also try to have customizations of wider use adopted
in similar ways by other manufacturers.
Try using the search box in Settings to see if you find similarly
named options wherever the phone maker put them.
Sigh. The Windows Vista approach to UI discoverability? :-P
You have another and better method of finding options in the hundreds of
them on the phone? Wandering through all levels of settings trying to
find where a phone maker happened to put an option is a lot of wasted
time.
A sane hierarcy. Really.
Never used the Start menu (instead of the search box, or you disabled
the superfluous search box) in the taskbar to search for item in the
Start menu? No need to scroll through trying to find an entry. Just
start typing it in. A menu-ized list is not necessarily the easiest and
often not the fastest method to find an entry.
I think you're underestimating the organization potential of a
hierarchical menu. The only flaw I remember from Windows' and Windows
NT's start menu in the "classical" design that was prevalent around
Windows 4 was the lack of categorization. That part desktops and window managers on top of GNU/Linux often managed much better out of the box,
at least at some point, with programs organized in subtrees. In Windows, IIRC, you'd have to do that manually.
But the programs list is just a tiny part of the hierarchical
arrangement of the UI. For example, in Windows 4, the user-exposed
filesystem interface is rooted at the desktop, and you can access
e.g. control panels from there (Desktop>My Computer>Control Panel). I
think the same is true in Windows NT 5.1.
Notifications -> Advanced settings -> Notification history, and thereturn on logging, and later go there to look at logged notifications.
| Sysop: | Jacob Catayoc |
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