Your Android phone is also a tracking device. Google isn’t shy about telling you that, as it keeps asking for permission to access your location. Of course, location tracking can be helpful, especially with recent advancements. You can quickly get suggestions on nearby restaurants, gas stations, and hotels, but we understand why some people want to stop location tracking on their Android phones.
Google tracks your Location through its Google Maps, and it would be easy for someone to track your movement if they got hold of your phone. Aside from Google Maps, most Android apps require enabling your location to run smoothly. We understand why you may want your Android phone to stop tracking your activities and movement, but is that even possible?
With the available option, turning off some built-in Android features seems possible. You might limit location tracking on Android rather than stop entirely, as Google will still manage to pinpoint your location even with all location tracking settings disabled. Also, some apps like Google Maps will only work if you enable location, but there’s a way to go about that.
Hence, I will explore ways to stop Google from tracking your location and monitoring your activities. I will give you a procedure to turn off tracking location using an Android phone. For this post, the screenshots are from the Pixel 6 Pro, running Android 14.
How to turn off Location tracking via Quick settings
You can quickly turn off location tracking on Android from your device’s Quick settings. To reveal it, swipe down from the top of your screen to reveal some icons. These are settings you can easily enable without going into the Settings app.
- Swipe down twice from the top of your screen to reveal the Quick Settings icons.
- The location icon should be there, but if you cannot find it, swipe left to reveal more icons.
- If you still can’t find it on your Pixel phone, tap on the pencil icon below.
- Tap and hold the location icon and drag it to where you can easily access it when you swipe down.
- On Samsung, tap the pencil icon at the top and select full, as it gives you more space.
- Available buttons are displayed at the bottom of your screen. Tap the location button to move it up, then tap and hold it to move it to when you can easily access it.
How to stop location tracking on Android phone
- On your Android phone, Head to Settings and scroll down to Google.
- Tap on it to reveal your Google account signed in on the phone.
- Click on the account display on the page to switch accounts or tap on “Manage your Google Account” if you have the preferred account displayed.
- On the next page, click Data & Privacy.
- Under history settings, tap on Location History and click on Turn off. You can choose “turn off” if you don’t want your activities deleted.
- To turn off your Location and delete your activity, tap on the second option.
Under Data & privacy, there are more options: Web & App Activity and YouTube History. You can further turn off location tracking using these options. However, Google uses the data saved in your account to help deliver personalized experiences across all their services.
Web & App Activity: It saves your activities on Google sites and apps. It includes your location info to help with faster searches and better recommendations. Turning it off might make some apps misbehave, but you can leave it on and make some modifications. Under the subsetting, you can uncheck options like ‘Include voice and audio activity. ‘
How to enable Auto-delete on your Android phone
You can choose to Auto-delete for all the categories under Data & privacy. You can also choose to Auto-delete your activities when they are older than three months, 18 months, or 36 months. However, you can permanently delete activities manually, regardless of the choice.
- To do this, head to Settings>>Google and click on Manage your Google account
- Select Data & privacy and scroll down to History settings.
- To select an auto-delete for each category, tap on it and scroll down to reveal the “Choose an auto-delete option.”
- Select Auto-delete activity older than and use the menu below to select your choice
- Click next below the save to save your settings, and on the next page, tap ‘Got it.’
- You can follow the steps to enable Auto-delete for the other two categories.
How to turn off location services on an Android phone
There is still more to do to limit how your Android phone tracks your location using Google’s built-in features. The location Services option has a few things to turn off to limit how Google tracks your location.
- On your Android phone, head to Settings, scroll down, and tap on Location, then Location Services. There are seven options on both your Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones.
- Tap on which location services you want to disable.
- If you click on-location services like ‘Emergency Location Service, Google Location Accuracy, Wi-Fi scanning, and Bluetooth Scanning, you can disable these services on a separate page, which has some information on how your Location can still be tracked even with the services turned off.
Disable location tracking for individual apps.
Most apps need your Location enabled to function correctly. In Android 14, Google introduced a location tab, which allows you to see and manage settings for all the apps accessing your Location. Interestingly, you can choose whether an app can access your precise Location.
To disable Location tracking for individual apps, head to Settings>>Location. You will see recent apps that access your Location. Tap on any to change the permission; depending on the app, you might be presented with a different option. However, you can ‘Allow all the time,’ ‘Allow only while using the app,’ ‘Ask every time,’ or ‘Don’t Allow.’
If you are using a Pixel phone, you can decide whether to grant apps access to your precise location. Your location is accessed not only via GPS but also through a combination of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Meanwhile, disabling location access for apps that rely on it will cause them to ask for permission to continuously access your Location. Unfortunately, you must keep tapping on “Do not Allow” unless you can stop the popup. But that will not work with apps like Maps as it need your location to function.
Nonetheless, you can allow these apps to access your Location but delete the data stored afterward. Below are steps to delete your location history using Google Maps.
- Launch Maps on your phone and click on your profile picture
- Click on Timeline; a popup might appear: “Go back in time,” tap on continue
- At the top right, click the three dots and tap “Settings and privacy.”
- Scroll down and tap on “Delete all location history.” Ensure the email that appears under is what you wish to delete the location history.
- The popup asks you to check a box to confirm that the action will appear. Check the box and click delete.
- Instead of deleting everything, you can select the option to Delete the Location History range.
- Also, there’s an option to delete location history automatically. Tap on it and select the intervals for which you want your location history deleted.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, Google can still ping you even with all the location services on your Android phone disabled. However, with the steps in this post, you can limit some data. The only way to remain safe on the Internet is to use a VPN.
