How to Turn off Google Location Tracking
In our hectic day to day lives, IT has become something of a necessity. Even if you don’t necessarily work in a sphere that’s directly related to it, instantaneous communication and the access to information it provides is a tool that can’t be overlooked. However, accessing information is a two-way street – just as you use IT to gather data about the world around you, so does that world collect intel on you. Nowhere is that exemplified better than in Google’s practice of collecting and storing the location data of its users.
While it is not exactly intrusive, recording your location history is automatic and allows Google to take your location into account for the purpose of advertising or for personalized services, local searches, etc. If you turn off location history, Google stops automatically recording your location for features such as the Maps timeline. However, even in this case “some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other Google services, like Search and Maps”. Even if you deliberately turn off location history on your Android phone, Google still tracks your location every time you use any one of its key services, including Maps, search, the weather.
There are many good reasons why you’d want to not give Google that data, without depriving yourself of all the services Google can provide for free. Here’s what you need to do to make sure Google’s location tracking is really turned off.
Table of Contents
How to Disable Tracking on Android Phone
- Go to“settings”.
- Go to“Google.”
- Go to“Google Account.”
- Go to“data & personalization.”
- Go to“web & app Activity.”
- Set the“Web & App Activity” to“off”
How to Turn off Location History on Android Phone
- Go to“settings”.
- Go to“Google.”
- Go to“Google Account.”
- Go to“data & personalization.”
- Go to“web & app Activity.”
- Set the“location history” to“off” for each device associates with this Google account.
How to Turn off Location History for iPhones, iPads and PC
- Go to Your Google account.
- Go to“data & personalization.”
- Set the“web & app Activity” setting to“off.”
- Set“location history” to“off”.
