Apart from the keys and wallet, one of the other things which you constantly have in your pocket is your smart phone. People all across the globe are now relying on the device more than ever they used to. They use it for entertainment purposes, communication purposes and what not.
However, there is also a dark side to using smart phones. A very recent report in newspaper shows the reality behind using smart phones these days. It has been claimed that there are hundreds of companies which use smart phone location and sell it to marketing companies. They use the data to market their services and products in a more customizable manner.
This can be one of the biggest privacy breaches that you can come across. There are always ways to it. You can file a lawsuit; or simply for convenience, turn off the mobile location. This is the simplest way to do so.
What is being turned off?
Before even turning off the mobile location, you need to know what is being done. If you are logged into more than one Google account, you will be required to switch between the users and thereafter, turn off the tracking on an individual basis. This is because the settings appear on basis of a single account. Most importantly, when the Location History is being turned off, this does not mean that the location tracking has been stopped entirely. You also need to turn off Web and App Activity.
Location History essentially stores the location data which is logged in automatically by Google applications. On the other hand, Web and App activity activates the location each time a query in entered on different applications. Thus, if you want a mobile to turn off location, then this is the way to move forward.
Disabling the Google location on Android
The first obvious step that you need to do is open the settings on the mobile phone. Thereafter, you should tap Google. Then you can select the option which says that manage the Google account. Thereafter, go to data and personalization tab. This will on the account dashboard. Then you are required to scroll down till you get the option called activity controls. There will be two options that can be toggled. You need to turn both the options to off.
As soon as you disable these options, the application will ask you if you want to put a pause to them. This is the way in which Google tells the users that the action being taken is not permanent and that the tracking can be re-enabled at any other time.
If you want to take extreme measures, you could even turn off diagnostics and sharing usage.
Disabling the Google location on the web
The first thing that you need to do in this regard is to sign in to your Google Account. This is to be done on the web browser. Thereafter click on the Avatar of Google which will appear on the right of the top of the search engine. Then you should hover to the Google Account button. Thereafter, click on that button. This will then take you to a dash board where all the settings in relation to the Google Account can be managed effectively. You will then be required to select the data and personalization tab. Then scroll to the down of the page until you see the activity controls button. There you will see different options which will include web and app activity button. This will also include the location activity button. Pressing them will effectively restrain Google from tracking all the location activity on your mobile phone.
Disabling the tagging of location on Camera application
If Google photos is being used for backing up the videos and pictures, then the files are being uploaded directly stored in the folder of camera. Most of the camera applications choose an opt in approach. This is for tagging of the location to the photos. Thus, you need to turn off the geo tagging. This can be done by the camera application directly. This will ensure that the camera application does not allow Google to store the location. However, it is pertinent to note in this regard that the photos application can still utilize machine learning in order to automatically identify popular locations.
The bottom line
Above are some of the ways in which you can turn off the mobile location. In this day and age, wherein, data is very important, it is essential that mobile location is being turned off at all times. You must follow the aforementioned steps in order to get the work done. If you need any technical support, you can get assistance from the customer support team of the manufacturer.
Source: pockent.com
