How to Prevent Your Android and Its Apps From Tracking Your Location
Much to the chagrin of the major technology companies, no one wants their smartphone spying on them. However, by default, our mobile devices track our every move and share that data with other apps and services. Luckily, as with most things on Android, you don’t have to live with the default settings provided to you. Instead, you can manage your location services in line with your privacy values.
How to completely disable location on Android
You can turn off the location feature on Android to prevent location data from being sent to Google or your other apps. To do this, swipe down from the top of the screen, then press and hold Location (the icon appears as a location arrow). If you don’t see Location here, click Edit or Settings , then drag Location to your quick settings.
While this might be the best way to protect your location’s privacy on Android, it’s not particularly user-friendly. Any apps that require location data to function, such as Google Maps, simply won’t work with this setting disabled. If you can live with it, you will be able to work with Android without being locked to a location. But most of us are better off tinkering with other location settings.
How to turn off location permissions for apps
Rather than turning off Location entirely on Android, you’ll probably find it more useful to manage permissions for each of your apps. Of course, not all apps are created equal, so you probably want to give some apps more location access and others to refrain.
Go to Settings> Location> App Permission . You will see three categories: Permanently Allowed , which contains applications that have access to your location whenever they want; Allowed only during use , which contains applications that can use your location only when these applications are active; and Ask Every Time , which contains apps that must ask permission each time to use your location. Tap any of these categories to view apps with those permissions. To change the resolution for a specific app, tap it and choose a new option.
Also, you can change location permissions for apps one by one. Press and hold the desired application on the home screen of your phone, then press (i). Choose Permissions> Location , then choose one of the three categories above, or Deny , which will block your location information for this app.
How to turn off location accuracy on Android
Android uses location accuracy to determine your exact location; it needs GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile network and phone sensor data to give you location-based hints and also display your exact location on the screen. This can be useful for certain apps, but you might find it inconvenient that both Google and its associated apps and services have access to this data.
To turn off location accuracy, go to Settings> Location> More> Google Location Accuracy , then turn off Improve Location Accuracy . When you disable this feature, Google will only be able to use GPS to determine your location. Not entirely confidential, but much less accurate than the default.
How to remove and disable Location History on Android
Location History – that’s exactly what it looks like; Google keeps track of where you go with your smartphone to provide recommendations, help you find your phone, and get real-time traffic information. However, for many of us, this is a little creepy.
To turn off Location History, go to your Google Account Activity Controls . Sign in if you haven’t already. Review your location history and select Disable. In the pop-up window, select ” Pause ” and a new pop-up window will appear. Select ” Delete old activity ” and Google will launch a location history map; here you can see dots for all the places you have been with google. To delete this information, simply click the trash can in the lower right corner, check the box in the pop-up window, then click REMOVE LOCATION HISTORY .
You can also choose to have Google automatically delete your location history after a specified period of time. On the Action Controls page, select an option under Auto Deletion , select an option under Automatically delete activity older than , then select 3 months , 18 months, or 36 months . Click Next to save your selection.
How to turn off the transmission of geolocation
If you have location sharing enabled but regret sharing your location with your contacts, you can easily disable this feature. Open Google Maps, tap your profile icon, then select Share Location . Tap the profile of the contact you no longer want to share your location with, then tap Stop to confirm.
How to turn off location permissions for web browsing
Google gives you control over which websites have your location information. To turn off location permission for a website, go to that website in your browser. Tap the Lock icon to the left of the address bar, tap Permissions , then turn off Location for this website.
Of course, you can turn off location permission for the entire browser; just follow the steps above to turn off location permissions for certain apps (in this case, a browser like Chrome or Firefox).