You probably know your Android phone or iPhone can pinpoint your location for GPS, local search, or the weather. Hopefully, you also know that means your phone keeps track of everywhere you go, all the time. Don’t be alarmed—it’s the trade-off you make for the features you get. If it makes you uncomfortable, here’s how to opt-out of location-tracking on Android and iOS.
Managing Location Services on Android
If you’re an Android user, Google’s location services are broken into three main features: Location Accuracy, Location History, and Location Sharing.
Location Accuracy is the feature that gives apps like Google Now, Google Maps, Foursquare, Twitter, and even your camera app access to your position. Whenever an app shows you something nearby, suggests local businesses, or helps you find the closest gas station, it’s using Location Accuracy. If you leave it on, your phone will triangulate your exact position via GPS, wifi, mobile networks, and other device sensors. Turn it off, and your device will only use GPS to figure out where you are.
Location History is the feature that keeps track of where you’ve been, and any addresses you type in or navigate to.
Location Sharing is self-explanatory, but here’s a quick reminder: This feature allows others to see where you are in real-time. You have to specifically set this up in Google Maps for your friends to see your location; they can’t just ping your device by default (obviously).
To disable Location Accuracy in Android:
Pull up Settings
Tap on Location
Disable the “Use location” button.
Also tap on “Google Location Accuracy” and set that feature to “Off.”
The Location screen is where you’ll be able to set specific location permissions for apps, like whether you want an app to always be able to access your device’s location or only when you’re using said app. You can also turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning, if you want to make it harder for apps and services to pinpoint your exact location.
This screen is also where you can disable Google’s Location History, if you don’t want it to keep a record of where you’ve been, as well as your Android’s Location Sharing.
(Note: We tested this on a Google Pixel 3; the exact navigation / names might be slightly different for your specific Android device.)
To delete your existing Location History in Android:
Visit Google’s Activity Controls (which is where you can also disable Location History tracking account-wide)
Click “Manage Activity”
Click on the tiny trash can icon in the lower-right corner of the screen. It looks like this:
Confirm that you want to delete all of your location history, and then click the big red “Delete Location History” link.
You can also have Google automatically delete older location history on your behalf—useful if you want to use the feature to track your recent whereabouts, but don’t want to keep a permanent record. Within the Google Maps Timeline, click on the gear icon to pull up your settings.
Select “Automatically delete Location History,” and then pick whichever timeline you want:
If you’re on your phone instead of a computer, you can delete your location history by pulling up Google Maps, clicking on the hamburger icon, selecting “Your Timeline,” tapping on the triple-dot icon in the upper-right corner, tapping on Settings, and scrolling down until you see the “Delete all Location History” option. This is also where you’ll set up automatic deletion, if you’re interested, and where you’ll turn off Location Services for your device or Location History for your account
To stop sharing your location with certain people
Pull up Google’s Location Sharing settings
Remove people to eliminate their ability to see your location in real time.
If you’re on your phone instead of a computer, open Google Maps, tap on the hamburger icon, and tap on Location Sharing. You’ll be able to add and remove your friends as you see fit.
Managing Location Services on iOS:
Selecting which apps can, and can’t, access your iPhone or iPad’s location is easy.
Open the Settings app
Scroll down and tap on Privacy
Tap on Location Services
Here, you can turn off Location Services device-wide. When you do, you’ll see a prompt that explains this feature in slightly greater detail:
Over on Apple’s website, the company notes that Location Services “uses GPS and Bluetooth (where they’re available), along with crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular towers to determine the approximate location of your device.” Turn Location Services off, and “apps can’t use your location in the foreground or background.”
The Location Services screen is also where you can adjust access for your device’s apps—either allowing them to use your location whenever they want, only when you’re using the app, or never. You can also ask to be prompted the next time an app wants to figure out where you are, so you can decide then.
To stop sharing your location with other people
If you tap on the “Share My Location” option in Location Services, you can review whether you’ve enabled Find My iPhone (a good thing) or Share My Location. The latter is what you’ll be able to send to people in Messages, as well as Apple’s Find My app, and it’s a necessary component for location-based automations via the Home app.
To delete your iPhone or iPad’s “significant locations”
Finally, head back to the primary Location Services screen and scroll down to System Services at the very bottom of the app list. Pull it up, and you’ll see a big list of features that can access your location (if you let them). To delete locations you regularly frequent—enough that your device considers them important—tap on the “Significant Locations”option, tap on a location, and and tap on “Edit” to start removing it. You can also clear your entire “Significant Locations” history using the option at the bottom of the screen.
For what it’s worth, these locations are all encrypted and stored locally on your device—Apple can’t see them. Similarly, Apple doesn’t collect your location data, associate it with your account, and store it on a server somewhere. You can check this for yourself by requesting a copy of all the data Apple has collected about you, or you can also read up on Apple’s various statements regarding location and privacy.
This story was originally published on 12/19/13, and it was updated on 8/9/19 with more recent information.