One Tech Tip: How to block your phone from tracking your location

[Nevilledog]

https://apnews.com/article/tech-tip-disabling-phone-tracking-33f6dedaa4c6f587a4049bceb87daadc

LONDON (AP) — Smartphones are useful tools for everyday life, but they’re privy to nearly everything about you, including all the places you’ve been — if you let them.

When you use a map app to find the new restaurant your friend recommended, or your phone’s browser to check the price of something you saw while window shopping, you could be unwittingly allowing your phone to track your location and share that information with others.

Phones use various signals to find your location, including cell tower pings, Wi-Fi access points, Bluetooth and 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.”

*snip*

[usonian]

1. I and others post privacy tips in Activist Headquarters. Recommrnded.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1011

EFF is very helpful.

[LizBeth]

2. My son keeps telling me to download Signal in an app and I know nothing about it.

[hunter]

3. The cell phone system has to know where your phone is in order to function.

That's nothing you can do to turn that off except by turning off the phone.

You can only turn off the finer details of geolocation. Supposedly.

If you don't want to be tracked best leave your phone at home.

[Skittles]

4. exactly

if your phone is up and on you, they know where you are.....end of story - turning "locators" off and on is about as effective as FB "privacy" - they're mostly an illusion