In this interesting blog, we will share, How you can stop your location tracking. It is the need of time to make it harder for others to know where you are and where you have been.
Location tracking proves to be very useful when you have to go somewhere. Still, you do not know the way how to go there, it can be very convenient when you are looking for something, say, a nearby restaurant, CNG station, parlour, cinema hall etc., but it also leads to the privacy issue. Do you want Google to know about all your wanderings like where did you go last week, where did you eat yesterday?
Of course not, right? So here we will tell you how you can stop location tracking on your Android phone and how you can delete the history of the locations you have been from some of the more popular apps. Note that your Android version can differ, but still there will not be that much difficult to find your way.
So let us discuss how you can stop Google from tracking your location
You must be knowing that Google can track your location and movements through google map like you must have noticed that many times when you are travelling somewhere you get some notifications about restaurants on your way, Hotels etc. But you may not be knowing that with the help of some inbuilt apps, your Android phone is also tracking your movements and location. But there is nothing to fear about it. If you want to stop your movements and locations are being trapped by your phone, it is possible to do that.
Stop Google tracking from using any browser
● Just go to https://myactivity.google.com/
● Select “Activity Controls” which are there in your left-hand side menu
● You will see various activities there and opt for the activities you would like to turn off.
There you will see various activities of yours like Locations you have been, some of your audio recordings (under Web & App Activity). From here you can also delete your Device Information ( contacts, calendars, etc.), YouTube history (it includes both your search and watch record), and Ad personalization (which provides for what kind of ads you will see).
Doing this, you can prevent your data from being collected anymore. Now you must be thinking of “What about the data that has already been collected?”
Don’t worry. We are here with a solution.
● Go to “My Activity” page
● Click on “Delete activity by” which is there in your left-hand side menu.
● You will get a pop-up window over there that will let you delete your activity, based on period like the last hour, 24hrs, “All time” like that.
Stop Tracking on an Android Device by Google
Just go to “Settings.”
Look for “Accounts”. There you will see your Google email accounts. Now you have to tap on the account that you want to change.
● Click on “Google Account.”
● Check for “Manage your data & personalization.”
● Now, please select it
● Look for “Activity controls.”
● Here you can turn off the monitoring of various activities.
You can also turn your location tracking on and off
In case you want your location to turn on or off as per your need, you can do that too. For that, you can use the Quick Setting Tray (you can see it by scrolling down from the top of your screen some phone have this feature from bottom-up). On this tray you can see a variety of icons which are generally the most often used features, so there you can see the “Location” icon that will let you turn on or off your location as per your need. Incase this tray does not show you the location icon. What you have to do is to click on the pencil icon and add all the features that you want on the tray.
Stop your location from getting tracked on Android devices
If you don’t want to stop Google from recording all your activities, and you want your phone to stop recording your location, you can do that too. For that, you need to swipe down your setting tray and long-press your Location icon. Now you are on your location page; there you have to find “use location” feature and turn it off. But that’s not it. GPS is not the only tool that records your movement, but there are other features too, like Wi-Fi, mobile networks, or other sensors. You do not have clue, must be thinking about what to do now? Instead of leaving this page, look for the “Advanced” button and click on it. You’ll see four categories that you can turn on or off. These categories are-
● Google Emergency Location Service.
● Google Location Accuracy.
● Google Location History.
● Google Location Sharing.
Disable any specific app from location tracking
Some applications also track your locations. You can find those apps and disable them from tracking your location and movements. Go to the Location page (the same way we have explained above) and click on “App permission”. Here you will find the list of apps that have permission to access your location. You can click on the apps which you want to stop tracking your location.
Delete your Google Location History on Android using Google Map
● Go to your Google Map’s app.
● Click on your profile icon which will reflect in the upper left corner.
● Click on “Your Timeline”.
● You will see three dots therein the upper right corner.
● Click it
● Click on “Settings and Privacy.”
● Look for the “Delete all Location History” option
● Now you will get a pop-up window that will ask you to check a box saying that by clicking on that box you understand that some of your apps may not work correctly, check that box and select “Delete.”
Delete location history
You not only have to delete your location history from Google or your Android phone settings, but there are some other platforms also which can collect your location info like Facebook and Twitter. For Facebook and Twitter, you have two options to delete your location history, one is from the Android app, and other is from the Browser. So whenever you are deleting your location history make sure that you delete it from Facebook and Twitter too.
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