Even if you have ‘Location History’ turned off, Google will often save your exact location.
Here’s how to remove these markers and some best effort practices that will keep your location as private as possible.
But there is no panacea, because simply using an internet connection on any device marks an IP address that can be geographically mapped.
Smartphones also connect to cell towers, so your carrier knows your overall position at all times.
To turn off tracking on any device
Open your browser and go to myactivity.google.com. You must be logged in to Google.
In the upper left drop-down menu, go to ‘Activity controls’. Disable both ‘Web & App Activity’ and ‘Location History’.
This should prevent precise location markers from being stored on your Google Account.
Google will warn you that some of its services may not work properly with these settings.
In particular, neither the Google Assistant, a digital concierge, nor the Google Home Smart Speaker will be particularly useful.
On iOS
When using Google Maps, your location setting adjusts to ‘While’ using the app. This prevents the app from accessing your location when it’s not active.
Go to Settings Privacy Location Services and from there select Google Maps to make the adjustment.
In Safari web browser, consider using a different search engine than Google.
Under Safari search engine parameters you will find other options like Bing or DuckDuckGo.
You can turn off the location while browsing by going to Settings Privacy Services Safari Web sites and turning it on ‘Never’.
This will still not prevent advertisers from knowing your raw location based on the IP address of each website.
You can also turn off Location Services on the device almost completely from Settings Privacy Location Services.
Both Google Maps and Apple Maps still work, but they do not know where you are on the map and can not give you directions.
Emergency responders can still find you when the need arises.
On Android
Under the main settings icon, click on ‘Security & Location’. Scroll down to the ‘Privacy’ section. Tap “Location.” You can turn it off for the whole device.
Use ‘App-level permissions’ to disable access to certain apps.
Unlike the iPhone, there is no setting for ‘While using’.
You will not be able to disable Google Play Services, which will provide your location to other apps if you disable that service.
Log in as ‘Guest’ on your Android device by swiping from the top down and tapping the cursor downwards, then back to the Torso icon.
Be aware of which services you sign up for, such as Chrome. You can also change search engines in Chrome as well.
To delete past location tracking on any device
On the myactivity.google.com page, look for any entry that has a location pin icon next to the word ‘details’.
Clicking on this will bring up a window containing a link that sometimes says “From your current location”.
Clicking on it will open Google Maps showing where you were then.
You can delete it from this popup by clicking on the navigation icon with the three stacked dots and then on ‘Delete’.
Some items are grouped in unexpected places, such as topic names, google.com, search or maps.
You have to delete them item by item. You can delete all items in date range or by wholesale service, but in the end will remove more than just location markers.
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