All sorts of companies like to access data on your location and movements. Advertisers want to hit precisely the right demographic in the right location. Also, retailers want to know what stores you visit and even how you move around inside them. As you know there are many tracking apps for phones like mSpy. So it is important to take care of your security and stop tracking apps in your phone.
Location tracking data can reveal an alarming amount of information about your activity. It’s not just about where you shop, it shows everywhere you go, which may include any sensitive details about your life.
If you’re concerned about your privacy, you can take action to prevent apps from tracking your location. Here’s how to prevent app location tracking on Android or iOS.
Find Out Tracking Apps in Your Phone to Stop Them
It’s a very good idea to start with a review of the apps on your phone that have access to location data. There are legitimate reasons for many apps to track your location. So be aware that denying access to location tracking may prevent some apps from working properly. A navigation app like Google Maps, for example, is not going to be anywhere near as useful if it doesn’t know where you are.
How to Stop Tracking Apps on an iPhone?
Things are a little more straightforward with iOS. Therefore if you want to turn off location tracking on your iPhone, or just restrict certain apps, then you need to do as following. Go to Settings >> Privacy >> Location Services, where you can choose to toggle Location Services off completely.
Bear in mind that this will impact some services and apps, such as Maps and Find My iPhone. So it might be a step too far. Although, it’s worth noting that “Location Services” can be re-enabled on the device if it’s in Lost Mode. You can put your iPhone into Lost Mode via iCloud.
In Settings > Privacy > Location Services, you’ll also see a list of apps that have location data access. In this way you can tap on each one and decide whether it should be allowed to access your location, Never, While Using the App, or Always.
How to Stop Tracking Apps on an Android Phone?
If you have an Android device, and you want to stop tracking apps entirely, then it’s easy to do. Although the precise instructions will differ slightly from phone to phone.
Google Pixel 3: go to Settings >> Security & location >> Location >> toggle Use location off.
Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus: go to Settings >> Connections >> Location >> toggle it off.
Huawei P20 Pro: go to Settings >> Security & privacy >> Location services >> toggle off Access to my location.
This will turn off all location tracking, so no apps will be able to access your location. It also means that, Google won’t track or save your location, though there’s evidence it will anyway.
Unfortunately, turning off location altogether also means that you can’t track your phone if it goes missing. So you can’t see or share your location in Google Maps, and some other services and apps may not work as well as they otherwise would.
How to Just Restrict Specific Apps in Android
You can still toggle off specific apps that you’d prefer not to have location access. Once again, the instructions will vary a little depending on your phone.
Pixel: go to Settings >> Apps & notifications >> Advanced >> App permissions >> Location.
Samsung Galaxy: you need to go to Settings >> Apps >> Menu (three dots at top right) >> App permissions >> Location.
Huawei phone: it’s Settings >> Apps & notifications >> Permissions >> Your location.
Review the list and toggle off anything that you’d prefer did not have the ability to track your location.
What About the Already Recorded Location Data?
Now that you’ve prevented various apps and services from tracking your location going forward, you may be wondering whether you can delete the location data that companies have already collected about your movements.
In Android Phone
If you have an Android phone, then you can ask Google to delete your location history:
- Simply follow that link, make sure you’re signed into your Google account,
- Tap the red “Delete Location History” button,
- Keep it in your mind that it will delete the information permanently and you won’t be able to get it back.
In iPhone
If you have an iPhone, then:
go to Settings >> Privacy >> Location Services >> and scroll down to find System Services >> Significant Locations >> then tap “Clear History” at the bottom. Apple claims this information is encrypted and can’t be read by Apple, so this may be unnecessary.
As for the location data collected by other companies through the apps you’ve been using, there’s no easy way to find out what it is or to delete it. You could start by referring to the organization in question’s privacy policy and get in touch with them. But it’s very possible they’ve already sold your data and they don’t have any legal duty to help you in the U.S.
To stop tracking apps and to further safeguard your privacy, we recommend using one of the best Android VPN apps or the best iPhone VPN apps.
