Most people don’t even know that they are constantly being tracked and that all their locations are being recorded in Google servers. Every place you visit is being tracked using Wi-Fi, mobile networks and GPS. This option is enabled by default and usually makes the user experience better and more convenient.
There are many applications and services that depend on your location, such as “Google Now” or showing your location in Tweets and Facebook posts, etc. so your movement is constantly tracked.
Even though tracking your location has many benefits, however, privacy conscious people are not comfortable with this privacy breach and don’t want to give away their exact location. For those people there is an option to disable this function and also delete all the previous location history.
If you are one of them, then it is better to disable this feature and keep your current location private. In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to disable Google Location feature and also remove previous location history.
Note: There are tons of apps that use your location to provide services and in most cases giving up your location data for amazing services weighs more than keep it private. Before disabling this feature, make sure you don’t depend on apps that use your location to provide services or you will have to give up on them. Furthermore, the effect is not permanent, you can enable this feature again any time you like by following same procedure below, so you should not be worried if you disable it.
Disable Google Location on Android
Disabling this feature on Android devices is a breeze, just tap on “Settings” and from there tap on “Location” under the heading PERSONAL.
On the next screen, tap or slide the green button on the top right corner of the screen to turn off location services. This will only pause the tracking, you will have to delete location data manually.
To delete the previous location history tap on “Google Location History” (location tracking should be “On” to access these settings) and there tap on “Delete Location History” at the bottom of the screen. From the prompt, check the option “I understand and want to delete” and then tap on “Delete” to delete all previous location history.
You can also access the location settings from Google Maps. Open Google Maps and tap on the menu at the top left corner of the screen.
In the menu, scroll down and tap on “Settings”. In settings you will see the option of “Google Location Settings”, tap on it and you will be able to access the location settings.
Disable Location Tracking in iOS
The Location services are quite flexible in iOS, tap on Settings and scroll down to Privacy and tap on “Location Services”.
Slide the slider on top to Disable “Location Services”. If you look down a bit, you will see all the apps that use the location tracking feature to provide services. Just enable the ones which you trust and would like to use.
Scroll down further and tap on “System Services” to access further services that depend on Location tracking. There you will find services such as “Frequent Locations”, “Near Me”, and Location-Based Advertising services, etc. Just disable the ones which you are not planning on using.
Disable Location Tracking in Browsers
Some Applications and services require your current location while you are browsing. So if you don’t want them to track your location, you need to disable Location tracking specifically in your browser.
Disable Location Tracking in Chrome
Click on the menu at the top right corner of the screen (it’s the three horizontal lines) and from there click on Settings.
At the bottom, click on “Show advanced settings…”. In there, click on “Content settings”
From the next window scroll down and select ”Do not allow any site to track your physical location” under the heading “Location” and hit “Done”. Your location will not be tracked anymore.
Disable Location Tracking in Firefox
Type “about:config” in the search bar and hit enter. On the next page, type “geo.enabled” in the search bar and below you will see the option of “geo.enabled”.
Double click on “geo.enabled” to set it to “False” and your location will not be tracked.
Disable Location Tracking in Opera
Click on the menu at the top left corner of the screen and from the menu click on Settings.
Click on “Websites” at the left side of the screen to see all options related to it.
Scroll down and select ”Do not allow any site to track your physical location” under the heading “Location” and your location will not be tracked.
If you would like to add further information about location tracking or have any questions, let us know in the comments below.