How Do I Turn Off my Phone Location? Ways to Protect Privacy

Information about where you are and where you’ve been isn’t just dangerous – it can reveal more about you than you might expect. And we all take our phones with us everywhere. That means that if it’s not stopped, your phone could be revealing your location and putting you at risk. If you’re a privacy-conscious person, you’ve probably asked, “How do I turn off my phone location?” or even keep your location off by default. But that’s not the only setting that matters. If you want to really keep your phone’s location private, there are a few more steps you need to take.

How Someone Could Get Your Location Information

Some people feel like their phone’s location data isn’t a big deal. Surely, they assume, it must be hard for malicious people to get that information. But that’s not necessarily the case. There are a surprising number of ways that companies, individuals, and governments can get your data.

From your phone. Unless you turn the right settings off, the company that made your phone hardware, the company that made your phone’s operating system, and your mobile carrier can get your location information right from your device, OS, or SIM or eSIM.
From apps. Many third-party apps request access to your location. If you give it that permission, the app developer can track your location.
From the company. Whether it’s an app developer or a phone manufacturer, if a company stores that information, someone else could get it. Some companies sell information they have for extra profit, so anyone can buy it. But even companies that don’t do that could reveal it in a hack, breach, or subpoena.
From your device. Even location data that doesn’t leave your phone isn’t necessarily safe. Malware, hacking, and someone stealing your device could all put that information in someone else’s hands. It could even be taken by force, such as U.S. Customs and Border Patrol searching your device.
From your IP address. Even if you’ve locked down all your settings, your phone’s IP address could still make it easy to identify where you are.

The Risks of Exposed Phone Location

Some people know that it’s not all that hard for someone to find where they are, even if they’ve turned off their phone location. But they don’t think it’s that big of a deal. They don’t feel like they have anything to hide, so they don’t see why they should put in the effort to secure their location privacy. But your phone location can reveal more than you think – including things people who think they have nothing to hide probably wouldn’t want publicly available.

Your location can reveal where you live and where you work. These two data points are usually enough to identify you personally. From there, someone could track everywhere you’ve been. That could reveal things as innocuous as your favorite restaurant, as unexpected as your religious affiliation or what kind of pet you have, or as private as medical issues, Alcoholics Anonymous attendance, or affairs. Companies can use this to build a frighteningly detailed profile, stalkers and domestic abusers can use this to track and hurt you, and ordinary burglars can use it to find out when you’re on vacation and your house is empty.

There’s a legal principle called the “third-party doctrine” that says that if you share your data with a company, you no longer have any right to it being private. That also means governments can buy and use your data, no warrant needed. After all, it’s publicly available for sale and you’ve given up the right for it to be private. This can lead to life-changing legal issues – some people are concerned that this might be used against people who’ve traveled to other states for medical care illegal in their states, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has already used location data to target people.

What Settings to Change to Turn Off Phone Location

If you want to turn off your phone location and really secure your location data, just turning Location Services off isn’t enough. Location data is valuable, so everybody that can wants to get it. They hide sneaky settings and agreements in all sorts of places to try to track you and harvest your data even if you thought you’d turned it off.

What options are available and where precisely the settings are located varies a little bit, depending on the type of device and OS version you have. But these steps should at least help you get started.

Turn Off Location Services

When you think of turning off your phone location, this is probably what you think of. It’s the most obvious, general location setting. On iPhone, you can access it in Settings > Privacy > Location Services. On Android, swipe down from the top of your home screen and tap and hold the location button (it’s shaped like a map pin).

It’s best to leave this setting off whenever you don’t need it. But some apps won’t work properly if you don’t have it on. Your navigation/GPS/maps app is the most obvious one that won’t work if Location Services is off. But it also affects apps like Life360 that relies on location tracking. Google’s Find My Device feature also won’t work if you turn Location Services off on your Android phone. (Apple phones don’t have this drawback. They will temporarily re-enable Location Services if you use Find My iPhone or activate Lost Mode.)

Check App Permissions

If an app wants to be able to access your phone’s location, it generally asks if you want to give it that access. It’s a good idea to regularly check what apps have location permission and turn off ones that don’t need it. Some apps do legitimately need location access, like your maps app. Others, like games or messaging apps, shouldn’t have it even if they do ask. And some apps will work without location access, but it will limit some features. (For example, your camera app can’t geotag your photos if it can’t access your location.)

Make sure location access is off for apps that don’t need it. It’s also a good idea to set even the ones that do need access to access “only while using the app” to prevent them from constantly tracking you. (As a bonus, tracking your location and reporting it back to the app developer can use a lot of energy, so turning off constant location access might help your battery life, too.)

On iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and scroll all the way to the bottom to see which apps have location access. Finding this setting on Android depends on your version, but you can probably find it by going into your settings app and searching for “permission.” It’s usually called “Permission Manager” or “App Permissions”

Stop Giving Google Your Location History

If you are the rare person who has never had an Android phone or a single Google account (including Gmail or YouTube), then you can skip this section. But if you have an Android or if you have a Google account, Google is tracking you. They make their money from selling your data, so they want as much of your data as they can get. Just turning off your phone location isn’t enough to stop them. Even if you turn off Location Services and all location permissions for Google aps, they still maintain a separate log of your location history.

You have to turn this one off in your Google account. On Android, find the “Manage My Google Account” setting. iPhone users, you’ll have to do this in a browser by going to myaccount.google.com. Go to Data & Privacy > History Settings. Disable both Location History and Web & App Activity.

If you have multiple Google or Gmail accounts, make sure you follow this process for every single one. Otherwise Google will still be tracking your location.

Prevent Tracking through Nearby Networks

Even if you turn off your phone location, your phone can still determine your location. It does that because by default, it scans for available wifi and Bluetooth networks in the area. Since those networks don’t tend to move much, knowing which networks are nearby can still tell apps and companies roughly where you are.

It’s easy to prevent this. Just turn off background scanning. On Android, find the Location Services setting and turn off both wifi scanning and Bluetooth scanning. On iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services and disable Networking & Wireless.

Disable Precise Location

Precise location is the ability to pinpoint your location within just a few yards. Without precise location, apps and devices can only figure out your location within a few hundred feet. With it, they can identify what building you’re in or what intersection you’re stopped at. And precise location is turned on by default.

Precise location has to be turned off for each individual app. On iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, select the specific app, and toggle off “Precise Location.” On Android, navigate to the app permissions screen, select a specific app, and toggle off “Use precise location.”

Allowing location access for an app can turn precise location back on for some devices. The standard permissions screen says the app wants permission to access your location and asks if you want to “Always allow,” “Allow only while using the app,” or “Deny.” (Some Android devices also give you the choice of sharing your precise location or an approximate location on this screen, but not all of them.) On some devices, selecting “Always allow” turns precise location back on. It’s generally a good idea to set even apps that do need location access to “only while using the app” regardless. But if you accidentally tap “Always allow” instead, remember that you may need to disable precise location again.

If you don't turn off your phone location, it's always tracking you and keping a history of where you've been.

Additional Steps to Turn Off Phone Location Tracking for iPhones

The previous steps were all applicable to both Android and Apple devices. But Apple devices have some additional features that Android devices don’t have – which means they have additional ways of tracking your phone location that you need to turn off. These steps will help you turn off the iPhone-specific features that are tracking your location.

This iPhone feature lets you share your precise location with contacts that you choose. And this feature has its uses. It’s good for group situations like keeping track of your kids at an amusement park and finding your friends in a crowded concert venue. It’s also beneficial for safety situations, such as going on a hike by yourself or meeting someone for a first date. But it’s also very easy to forget you shared your location with someone or forget to disable access after what was supposed to be a temporary safety measure.

It’s important to regularly check who you’re using Exact Location Sharing with and remove access for anyone who shouldn’t have it anymore. You can see everyone who currently can see your location by going to the Find My app and tapping People. To stop sharing your location with someone, tap their name and then tap “Stop sharing my location” at the bottom.

Disable Significant Locations

Just like Google, Apple devices track your location history. Though Apple doesn’t share and sell your location data quite as much as Google, it’s still a good idea to remove that information and stop them from collecting more. iPhones collect this data through the Significant Locations setting.

Access this setting through Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations. There are two things to do once you’re on this screen. First, clear the history. That erases all of the location data that your device has already collected. Second, toggle the setting off. This will stop your device from saving your location history going forward.

Stop Your Carrier from Tracking You

Your mobile carrier tracks your location by default. But in some narrow circumstances, iPhones give you the ability to turn off your phone location for your carrier, too. It only works on iPhones with Apple’s own C-series cellular modem chips (such as the iPhone 16e or 17e or the iPhone Air) and with carriers that explicitly support it. But if you have an iPhone with a C-series chip and your carrier supports this feature, you can keep your mobile carrier from getting your precise location.

Go into Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Cellular (may be called Mobile Services, depending on your device) > Cellular Data Options and find the “Limit precise location” option. Turn that setting on. Your carrier will still have a general idea of your location. They’ll have enough detail to know roughly what neighborhood you’re in, which is enough to provide service. But they won’t be able to pinpoint you exactly.

Review Your Settings Regularly

Going through your phone and turning off location settings everywhere you can is an important step. It goes a long way towards protecting your privacy and keeping others from tracking your location. But it’s easy to forget who you shared your location with or what apps have what permissions. And sometimes things change. An app doesn’t need permission anymore, an update put your location settings back to the default, or you accidentally pressed “Allow always” and turned precise location back on.

It’s a good idea to audit your device every few months to check on your location privacy. If you use things that require location access a lot or frequently install new apps, you might need to do it more frequently. But you shouldn’t need to go through this whole process every time. If you do it regularly, it will eventually become second nature. And unless you have several hundred apps, it shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes every few months to check app permissions, review who has Exact Location Sharing access, and make sure Precise Location is turned off. This will help you protect your privacy going forward.

Close the Last Gap with a VPN

Remember at the beginning of this article where your IP address location can expose where you are even if you turn off all of your phone location settings? All of these settings can do a lot, but if your IP address still shows your real location, you’re still exposed.

That’s where a VPN comes in. A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, routes your traffic through a VPN server somewhere else. This server acts like a shield. Anyone looking at your location data doesn’t see your IP address (or the location of your IP address). All they will be able to see is the server’s IP address and the server’s location. This makes a VPN the best tool to prevent IP address-based location tracking.

Very few phones have VPNs already built in. But most VPNs have a mobile version, and it’s generally easy to install and turn on. Once turned on, the VPN will automatically go to work hiding your IP address from anyone who wants to track your location.

Learn more about VPNs and how they work: The Ultimate VPN Resource

Try our tool to find the best VPN for your needs: VPN Simplifier

Follow These Steps to Stop Your Phone from Tracking Your Location!