Geolocation is the process of identifying the physical location of an internet-connected device, such as your phone, laptop, tablet, or smart watch, using data signals like GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular networks, Bluetooth, and your IP address. Every time you open a maps app, get a localized search result, or see an ad for a business near you, geolocation is what makes that possible.

It’s worth knowing what geolocation can and can’t see. It tracks your device, not you personally. It won’t reveal your name, your street address, or which room you’re in. But it can identify your country, region, city, and sometimes even your neighborhood. That information is more useful to advertisers, data brokers, and bad actors than most people realize.

When geolocation is derived from your IP address specifically, accuracy varies more than you’d expect. At the country level, it’s reliable, typically above 95%. But at the city level, it drops to somewhere between 50–80%. Mobile connections, VPNs, proxies, and satellite internet can all throw it off significantly, sometimes placing you hundreds of miles from where you actually are.

If you’d rather keep your location to yourself, you have options. A VPN masks your real IP address and replaces it with the server’s location, making IP-based geolocation point somewhere entirely different. You can also manage location permissions directly in your browser or on each app on your device—giving you more control over what websites and advertisers can infer about where you are.