As you use your iPhone, it shares your location with various apps for a better user experience. However, some apps misuse this information and give it to third parties.
So if you want to stop sharing your location, how do you go about it? Here are 5 proven methods you can try.
Go to Settings
The ability to share your location with people is useful for many reasons, but it can quickly become a liability if you fall out of touch with someone. So if you want to stop sharing your location with friends and family, you should know how to turn off this feature on an iPhone.
Luckily, you can stop sharing your location with people, apps and maps on an iPhone fairly easily. However, how you do that will depend on who’s accessing your location and what they’re doing with it.
In the case of people, they can either choose to share it for a specified amount of time or opt for it to be shared continuously (which isn’t ideal). They also can set up notifications that send them alerts whenever your phone leaves or arrives at pre-determined locations.
You can also use the Find My iPhone app to track your phone in real-time, though this feature isn’t as precise as the others. You’ll need to be connected to a WiFi network for it to work, and you might not be able to see your exact location on the map.
To stop people from seeing your location on the Find My iPhone app, you can disable it using the settings app. You can do this by going to Settings > General and then tapping Reset Location & Privacy.
Once you have turned off location services, you’ll be unable to receive alerts from Find My iPhone or the iMessage app that can show your real-time location. You can also use Airplane mode to hide your iPhone’s GPS data and prevent it from showing your location in the Find My iPhone app.
You can also check whether apps that you’ve installed on your iPhone can see your location by going to Settings > Privacy and then tapping Location Services. This will list all the apps that can access your location and let you turn them off or on if necessary.
Tap Privacy
The Find My iPhone app is an incredible tool that makes it possible to share your location with friends and family. However, it can also be an invasion of privacy if you don’t want your friends or family to know where you are at all times.
Thankfully, there are many ways to stop sharing your location without informing people. One option is to simply turn off the “Location Services” feature on your iPhone. You can do this by navigating to Settings and scrolling down the list until you see the Privacy feature.
Another way to stop sharing your location is to turn off all the apps that request your location data. This will make it much more difficult for a third party to track you.
You can do this by opening the Settings app on your iPhone and scrolling down to “Privacy.” Once you’re there, tap “Location Services.” This will show you all the apps that are sharing your location with others.
These apps can include the Weather app, Uber, Ola, KFC, and other popular apps that need your location to function properly. While these apps are usually fine to use, it’s best to avoid giving access to other random apps that you don’t actually need.
The same is true of the camera app, which can use your location to tag photos and videos that you take. This can be a privacy concern, especially if you post those photos and videos publicly online.
If you’re concerned about your own privacy, you can use Apple’s Safety Check to quickly audit all of the apps and other data that are requesting access to your location. This is particularly helpful if you suspect a stalker, domestic abuser, or other person with inappropriate access to your personal information may be using your iPhone.
Tap Location Services
If you want to hide your location from other people on your iPhone, there are a few ways you can go about it. First, you can turn off your iPhone’s location services. This will prevent other apps from accessing your current location and using it as a way to track you.
Another option is to disable Find My iPhone. This will stop all Apple- and third-party apps from knowing your location, which means they won’t be able to send you notifications that tell you where you are. This also stops your cellular data from being used by Find My iPhone, which can save you some battery power.
Lastly, you can use Airplane mode to block your phone’s network connection. This will completely block your phone from connecting to Wi-Fi or cellular networks, which will make it impossible for other apps to get your location.
In order to disable all of these features, you need to take a look at your iOS settings. To do this, open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap Privacy.
There, you’ll see a list of all the apps that are requesting permission to use your location. Some of these apps will only ask for Location Services while they’re active, but others will need access to it at all times.
As you can imagine, this can be a big pain if you have many different apps that need to use your location at any given time. This is why it’s a good idea to disable them on an app-by-app basis.
You’ll also need to check whether you’re willing to allow your iPhone to share your location indefinitely through iMessage or Find My iPhone. These features can be a great way to share your location with friends and family, but they can also be problematic if you don’t want your contacts to know where you are all the time.
Tap Turn Off
There are times when you don’t want to share your location with other people. Maybe you’re running errands or going out for a hike, but you don’t want everyone to know where you are. Thankfully, there are ways to stop sharing your location without anyone knowing about it.
One of the most important things you can do to protect your privacy is to disable location sharing on your iPhone. This will prevent your friends and family from being able to find out where you are by looking up your phone’s GPS coordinates.
While it’s a good idea to share your location with your friends and family, there are some circumstances when you don’t want them to know where you are. For example, you might be afraid that a loved one is planning on stalking you or tracking your phone.
You can stop sharing your location on your iPhone by going to Settings and tapping Privacy. You’ll see a section called “Location Services.” Tap the switch next to the Precise Location option.
Once you’ve toggled the switch, your iPhone will no longer show your current location in any app or feature that uses Location Services. This includes apps like Messages, Find My, and Snapchat.