Control Windows Advertising ID for Enhanced Privacy using Intune
Let’s discuss Control Windows Advertising ID for Enhanced Privacy using Intune. Windows advertising ID in the context of Windows devices is a unique, resettable identifier generated by Windows for each user on a device.
App developers and advertising networks can use this ID to associate personal data they collect about you and use it to provide more relevant or personalized advertising within apps. With Intune Settings Catalog policy, you can easily configure Windows Advertising ID Policy.
Tracking user activity, even anonymously, for advertising purposes is often considered a privacy concern. Organizations have a responsibility to protect employee data and limit data collection, especially on corporate-owned assets. With this policy, you can control it.
While the Advertising ID itself is not a direct security threat, it enables third-party ad networks to build detailed profiles of users’ app usage. In high-security environments, minimizing any form of external tracking reduces the potential for corporate device usage patterns to be inadvertently exposed or profiled.
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Control Windows Advertising ID for Enhanced Privacy using Intune
Windows Advertising ID Policy provides many advantages for users, admins and organization. This policy Prevents apps from constantly performing background tasks related to ad tracking, data collection, and communication with ad servers, potentially freeing up bandwidth and minor system resources for mission-critical applications.
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Configure Policy from Intune Portal
Using Intune (MDM) to enforce this setting ensures that every managed device adheres to the same corporate privacy standard automatically. Admins no longer rely on users to manually find and toggle this setting on each device.
- Sign in with Microsoft Intune Admin center.
- Go to Devices > Configuration > +Create >+ New Policy.
Selecting Platform and Profile Type
Selecting Platform and Profile Type is the next step we have to do. This is very essential to apply the policy to appropriate Platform and Profile Type. Here I would like to configure the policy to Windows 10 and later platform and settings catalog profile. Then click on the Create button.
Basics of Policy
As per the heading, basic tab is the begging stage that helps you to add basic details like name and description for the policy. Here is Name is mandatory and description is optional. After adding this click on the Next button.
Configuration Settings for Selecting Settings
From the configuration settings tab you can access settings picker to select specific settings for policy creation. To get the Settings Picker, click on the +Add settings hyperlink. Here, I would like to select the settings by browsing by Category. I choose Privacy. Then, I choose Disable Advertising Id Policy settings.
Choose Value for Disable Advertising Id Policy
There are 3 values available for this policy and you can choose according to your preferences. Here I select Disabled value. The below table shows all valuea avialble for this policy.
| Values | Details |
|---|---|
| Enabled | If you enable this policy setting, the advertising ID is turned off. Apps can’t use the ID for experiences across apps. |
| Disabled | If you disable or don’t configure this policy setting, users can control whether apps can use the advertising ID for experiences across apps. |
Adding Scope Tags
Scope Tags sections help you add restrictions to the visibility of the Policy. But it is not a mandatory step, so you can skip this step. Here, I don’t add scope tags for Windows Advertising Id Policy. Click on the Next button.
Selecting Group from the Assignment Tab
To assign the policy to specific groups, you can use the Assignment Tab. Here I click, +Add groups option under Included groups. I choose a group from the list of groups and click on the Select button. Again, I click on the Select button to continue.
Review + Create Tab
Before completing the policy creation, you can review each tab to avoid misconfiguration or policy failure. After verifying all the details, click on the Create Button. After creating the policy, you will get a success message.
Monitoring Status
The Monitoring Status page shows whether the policy has succeeded or not. To quickly configure the policy and take advantage of the policy sync, the device on the Company Portal, Open the Intune Portal. Go to Devices > Configuration > Search for the Policy. Here, the policy shows as successful.
Event Viewer
It helps you check the client side and verify the policy status. Open the Client device and open the Event Viewer. Go to Start > Event Viewer. Navigate to Logs: In the left pane, go to Application and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > DeviceManagement-Enterprise-Diagnostics-Provider > Admin.
- You will get the success result on Event ID 813
Removing the Assigned Group from Windows Advertising Id Policy Settings
If you want to remove the Assigned group from the policy, it is possible from the Intune Portal. To do this, open the Policy on Intune Portal and edit the Assignments tab and the Remove Policy.
To get more detailed information, you can refer to our previous post – Learn How to Delete or Remove App Assignment from Intune using by Step-by-Step Guide.
How to Delete Windows Advertising Id Policy
You can easily delete the Policy from the Intune Portal. From the Configuration section, you can delete the policy. It will completely remove it from the client devices.
For detailed information, you can refer to our previous post – How to Delete Allow Clipboard History Policy in Intune Step by Step Guide.
Description Framework Properties
The Description framework properties of Windows Advertising Id Policy shows the Property name Property value. The below table shows more details.
| Property name | Property value |
|---|---|
| Format | int |
| Access Type | Add, Delete, Get, Replace |
| Default Value | 65535 |
Group Policy Mapping
This policy setting turns off the advertising ID, preventing apps from using the ID for experiences across apps. The below table shows the group policy mapping details of Device Enumeration Policy.
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | DisableAdvertisingId |
| Friendly Name | Turn off the advertising ID |
| Location | Computer Configuration |
| Path | System > User Profiles |
| Registry Key Name | Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AdvertisingInfo |
| Registry Value Name | DisabledByGroupPolicy |
| ADMX File Name | UserProfiles.admx |
OMA URI Settings
It can be easily configured throug CSP. You can create OMA URI Settings by Sign in Intune Portal. Devices > Configuration. Click on Create to start a new policy. Choose the platform as Windows 10 or later. For the Profile type, select Templates, then choose Custom. Provide a name for the policy, such as Control Windows Advertising ID Policy and add a description if needed.
- Click on + Add under OMA-URI Settings to configure the specific setting.
- To Configure the OMA-URI Setting Enter Name and Description
- Enter the following OMA-URI path:
- ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Privacy/DisableAdvertisingId
- Enter the value
- 65535 (Default) Not configured
- 0 Disabled.
- 21 Disabled.
- After entering the above details, click the Save butto
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Author
Anoop C Nair has been Microsoft MVP for 10 consecutive years from 2015 onwards. He is a Workplace Solution Architect with more than 22+ years of experience in Workplace technologies. He is a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group Community leader. His primary focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM and Intune. He writes about technologies like Intune, SCCM, Windows, Cloud PC, Windows, Entra, Microsoft Security, Career, etc
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