Did you know that if you enter Google Maps you can see your location history in great detail ? All the places you have been, all the routes and the time you have spent on each of them. It can certainly be useful, but the truth is that if we think about it coldly, it is quite scary.
Although I wish it was just Google Maps. The social networks, the stores and web pages that we visit, and even the mobile camera is capable of registering our location. What can we do to stop all this madness?
How to completely disable location on an Android device
It is clear that we can manage details such as using Google Maps in incognito mode and deactivating the GPS of the mobile, but that is not enough. All these services and applications use our location to offer us a better experience on their platform, and that is appreciated, but there are times when you just want to keep your privacy and stop stories.
For this we can make a few modifications on our terminal.
1- Disable the mobile GPS
This is the most obvious tip of all. Some applications will continue to know where our location is through other methods, but the information they will get will be less accurate.
Pull down the Android notification bar, and make sure the “Location” button is disabled.
2- Deactivate the Google location history
The next step is less obvious but just as necessary. Go to the Android settings menu and go to “Google -> Manage your Google account”.
In the top menu, go to “Data and privacy” and deactivate the ” Location history ” option . Also deactivate the option ” Activity on the Web and in Applications “, since here Google also uses the user’s location to offer recommendations and more precise results.
3- Deactivate the location in the camera app
Now that we have the flanks more or less covered, it is time to spin a little finer. Open the camera app of your Android device and enter the setting options.
Depending on the customization layer of our phone, this option will be in one place or another, but in any case, within the camera app you should see a tab to activate or deactivate the location of the photos.
In the case of Samsung mobiles, for example, this option is found within the camera settings, deactivating the ” Location label ” tab .
When we upload a photo to the internet, if the camera had the location activated, it is possible that anyone can see where the photo was taken by analyzing the metadata in a very simple way. If we deactivate the location of the camera we will avoid this type of problem.
4- Block access to the location for certain apps
If you want to make sure that a specific application can never access your location, you can also do it individually.
- Open the Android “Settings” menu.
- Go to “Location” and select “Application permissions.”
- Select the app you want to manage and choose between “Deny” access to the location, “Always ask” or “Allow only if the application is in use”.
If you don’t want the app to know your location at any time, simply choose the “Deny” option and repeat this same process with all the apps you want to have controlled.
5- Restrict the location settings to the maximum
To finish, go back to the Android settings menu and go back to “Location”.
- Turn off the tab for ” Google Location Accuracy.” As we mentioned a moment ago, in addition to GPS, Google also uses wireless and mobile networks (that is, our data connection and Wi-Fi) to obtain the location. If we deactivate this option, Google applications will only be able to know the location when GPS is activated.
- ” Emergency location services.” The location service for emergencies or ELS, is a function that allows us to automatically send our location to the emergency services in our region, even if we have the GPS deactivated. Due to its importance in cases of real need, it is not recommended to deactivate this option .
After carrying out all these actions, our mobile will hardly be able to transmit our exact location to any other external service or platform. If you think that we have left any adjustment in the pipeline, do not hesitate to stop by the comments area. Thanks for staying until the end!
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