Instagram saysthat those ad interests are generated from a handful of sources, including people that you follow and the images and videos you tap that heart button on or write a comment on. Instagram also uses data from your Facebook account — including details like your age and education — and will even track the websites that you visit and the apps that you use.
Instagram isn’t secretive about that list of interests, however. On your Instagram profile, tap the settings or gear icon (on mobile, the settings are located in the menu accessible from the icon on the upper right corner of your profile). Click onPrivacy and Securityon desktop orSecurityon mobile. On the next screen, tap onView Account DataorAccess Data, then scroll down toAds Interestsand clickView All. Here, you’ll find an exhaustive list of what Instagram thinks your interests are. So if you once liked a photo captured in Amsterdam or a photo of a rock climber because you liked the shot, you’ll probably find those seemingly random topics on your list.
There are a few other tools, however, for getting irrelevant ads out of your feed. When an ad pops up that doesn’t align with your interests, you can tap the three-dots icon andselectHide Ad, a big hint for Instagram that your ad interest list needs some work.
Instagram users can also turn off some of that data tracking — which has the opposite effect of making ads less relevant. (Sorry, you may’t turn off ads altogether). That’s done not through Instagram, but through Facebook settings.Inside Facebook ad preferences, navigate to theAd settingssection. SelectNot allowedfor any or all of the three types of data tracking — data from partners, data from Facebook activity, and data from social actions. Those settings will also cross over to your Instagram account.
