One Simple Hack: Stop Your Phone From Tracking You

LONDON (AP) — Smartphones serve as handy devices for daily activities, yet they can access almost every detail of your personal information, such as all the locations you have visited — provided you grant them permission.

Whenever you utilize a mapping application to locate a new eatery suggested by your friend, or open up your phone’s web browser to verify the cost of an item spotted during some window shopping, you might inadvertently permit your device to monitor your whereabouts and transmit this data to third parties.

Mobile devices utilize multiple types of signals to determine their position, such as cellular network connections through pinging from cell towers, nearby Wi-Fi hotspots, Bluetooth devices, and satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS).

Sometimes your phone needs to know your location to provide a useful service, like telling the Uber driver where to pick you up. But in other cases, there’s little justification for tracking your whereabouts, which then can be exploited by apps, ad services or even hackers.

“From fitness tracking to navigation, every location ping potentially reveals details about our routines and movements – which could be risky in the wrong hands," said Darren Guccione, CEO of Keeper Security. “Users should turn on location tracking only when necessary, such as during navigation, emergencies or sharing updates with trusted contacts, and disable it immediately afterward."

Specialists caution that location information might be utilized to monitor individuals who frequent certain places. abortion clinics . Or "a disgruntled ex could use location sharing to stalk someone, or a current, abusive partner could force you into location sharing as a means of control,” said David Ruiz, senior privacy advocate at cybersecurity company Malwarebytes.

Below are several suggestions to ensure minimal use of location tracking:

App permissions

Go to your phone's settings menu to review the permissions.

Users of iPhones can navigate to the Privacy & Security section and from there select Location Services to review the settings for each application individually. Cybersecurity specialists advise against allowing applications continuous access to your location when running in the background. Rather, configure these apps to prompt permission every time they want to know your location, to utilize it solely while active, or entirely prevent them from accessing this information.

As you explore the Location Services settings, you may see small arrows showing which applications have accessed your location. A purple arrow signifies recent use, whereas a gray one points to access within the last 24 hours.

It varies somewhat for Android devices due to the numerous variations from different handset makers. Typically, you should proceed to settings , and then tap the Location icon, which lets you turn it on or off for all apps.

To adjust configurations for separate applications, tap App location permissions , where you’ll find options comparable to those found in iOS.

iPhone privacy

Apple offers various methods to reduce third-party tracking that could involve location data. Within the iPhone’s Privacy & Security settings, you can find the Tracking section which includes an option labeled “Allow Apps to Request to Track.” If you disable this feature, all future app requests for permission to track will be automatically rejected, preventing them from obtaining your device's advertising identifier as well.

Advertising ID

Privacy experts recommend disabling your Google or Apple device’s internal ad ID, which allows third-party tracking on most devices for improved advertising targeting.

For iPhones, navigate to the Privacy settings and scroll down until you find Apple Advertising; from there, turn off Personalized Ads. If you're using a more recent Android device, head over to thePrivacy section, locate theAds option, and tap on Delete Advertising ID.

Pinpoint or general

Regardless of whether you opt for an Android device or go with iOS, these platforms offer features enabling accurate determination of your whereabouts through the integration of Wi-Fi connections along with inputs from internal components like gyroscopes, accelerometers, and barometers. Such capabilities aid in estimating the handset’s coordinates particularly when indoors where satellite-based GPS might be obstructed.

A key benefit of using this feature is to precisely indicate your current whereabouts to individuals you are scheduled to meet. According to Google, these location signals are designed to be random, ensuring they cannot be linked back to an individual user or their accounts. Nonetheless, you may prefer not to disclose your exact position to all applications, hence allowing your device to broadcast only a broad area as your approximate location could be more preferable.

On Android devices, disable the feature Location Accuracy For all applications, set the preferences on iPhones individually enabling or disabling them per app.

Your Google account

In addition to managing app permissions on your device, you should also review settings within your Google account. Following an investigative report by the Associated Press in 2018 that revealed Google still collected location data despite users turning off "Location History," the company has been compelled to become clearer regarding their location tracking policies.

Head over to myaccount.google.com and navigate to the Data & Privacy area, where you’ll locate the Location History settings. In the recent updates section, this record automatically deletes itself after three months; however, you have the option to modify this default configuration.

Browsers

Well-known mobile web browsers such as Safari or Chrome might disclose your location, hence consider opting for alternatives that do not retain data about you, including DuckDuckGo, Firefox Focus, or Ecosia.

Should a privacy-conscious browser require your location via your IP address, it will seek your permission beforehand. Additionally, it provides an easy way for you to remove your cookies and other online activity data.

Find my device

Smartphones or tablets can likewise be located using Apple’s Find My or Google’s Find My Device services when they get misplaced. If you suspect unauthorized access to your Apple or Google account, you have the option to disable these tracking features.

Block the signal

Certain cybersecurity sites suggest enabling airplane mode; however, since it does not necessarily disable every signal, you should not depend solely on this method.

A signal-blocking Faraday pouch would be a more suitable option, however, ensure you verify its effectiveness to confirm it blocks all signals completely. Just remember, you will have to remove the device from the pouch whenever you want to utilize it.

Tradeoffs

With numerous potential methods through which smartphones—and other gadgets such as smartwatches—can monitor our whereabouts, compiling a comprehensive checklist becomes quite challenging.

The standard interaction we have with applications, businesses, and platforms involves allowing them to monitor us, making it significantly more challenging for us to examine all the pathways through which our information is transmitted, as stated by Ruiz.

"The sad reality is that to completely stop this, we must delve into our device settings and review each application one by one, making personal choices about how these applications gather our location information,” stated Ruiz. "Otherwise, we might as well disable all location services altogether," which may lead to issues such as needing to input your address manually when using ride-sharing apps or missing out on real-time navigation from map programs, he explained.

___

Do you believe there’s a technology subject that requires further explanation? Reach out to us at onetechtip@ap.org With your ideas for upcoming versions of One Tech Tip.