“How to Make Sure You’re Not Accidentally Sharing Your Location”
WIRED, February 12, 2023
Security
By David Nield
“Keep your movements private.”
Your devices and apps really, really want to know where you are—whether it’s to tell you the weather, recommend some restaurants you might like, or better target advertising at you. Managing what you’re sharing and what you’re not sharing, and when, can quickly get confusing.
It’s also possible that you have inconsistencies in the various location histories logged by your devices: Times when you thought you’d switched off and blocked location sharing but you’re still being tracked, or vice versa.
Here we’ll cover everything you need to consider when it comes to location tracking, and hopefully simplify it along the way. Whether you want to give out access to your current location or not, you should be in control of these settings, and not be caught unawares by additional options that you missed.
What happens if you distinctly remember turning location tracking off on a device, yet your position is still popping up on a map? Or maybe you thought you’d left the feature on, yet you’re seeing gaps in your location history? There are a few explanations, but essentially you need to remember all the different ways your location can be logged: by your devices, by your apps, and by websites you visit.
For example, you might have disabled location tracking on a phone but left it enabled on a tablet. Alternatively, you might have a laptop that’s tracking where you are in the background, even though you thought you’d disabled the feature in the apps you use. If you want location tracking completely enabled or disabled, you need to factor in all these different ways of keeping tabs on where you are.
About the Author:
David Nield is a tech journalist from Manchester in the UK, who has been writing about apps and gadgets for more than two decades.
