The New York Times recently published a bombshell article revealing just how completely companies who sell our locations to advertisers, marketers and others track our movement. Anonymous sources provided The Times with a dataset from a single location-data company that contained 50 billion pings from phones of more than 12 million Americans over several months in 2016 and 2017.
This data enabled Times reporters to track numerous people in power positions, including military officials, law enforcement officers and high-powered lawyers. They watched as people visited the Playboy Mansion and they tracked visitors to celebrity estates. Once they identified a phone, they could track it wherever it went. Imagine how that data could be used if it wound up in the wrong hands!
No one intends to let unknown companies track their locations constantly. But code built into smartphone apps does just that, often without our knowledge. Many of the apps that request access to location services have a legitimate reason for doing so. For example, Google Maps can’t provide navigation directions unless it knows where you are. But others want location access for less practical reasons. Do you really want to let a coffeeshop app know your location at every moment in exchange for the occasional free latte? And some apps—notably weather apps—may have a legitimate need for location information but they use that data for far more than users expect.
Even if you’re not too perturbed about companies you’ve never heard of knowing your exact whereabouts at all times (mostly to serve you more targeted advertising), there’s no guarantee this data couldn’t fall into the hands of foreign governments, criminals or hackers willing to sell your movement patterns to an aggrieved employee, corporate spy or jealous ex-lover.
Steps You Can Take to Protect Your Location Privacy
Luckily, Apple provides controls in iOS that let you limit your exposure. For most people, going completely dark isn’t realistic. Too many iPhone capabilities require location services, ranging from turn-by-turn directions, to geotagging photos, to using Find My to see if your kid left the soccer tournament yet.
Nevertheless, going dark is a possibility:
Go to: Settings > Privacy > Location Services
Disable the Location Services switch at the top.
That turns off location services for all apps, although iOS will turn them back on temporarily if you use Find My iPhone to enable Lost Mode.
What We Recommend Instead
-
Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and scroll down to see a list of every app on your iPhone that would like to know your location. (The same is true on the iPad, but fewer people use their iPads as much while out and about.)
-
For each app in the list, tap the app’s name to bring up the Allow Location Access screen, which has up to four options:
-
Never: Prevent this app from ever determining your location.
-
Ask Next Time: The next time the app wants permission to track you, make it ask again.
-
While Using the App: Allow the app to track your location as long as you’re actually using it.
-
Always: Let the app track your location at all times, even when you’re not using it.
-
-
Tap one of the options to select it, and then tap Back to return to the list.
We can’t tell you exactly how to configure each app, since everyone has different privacy concenrs. However, here is some advice:
-
Apps and other entries from Apple are generally safe because Apple has an extremely strong privacy stance and excellent security against hacks. But, down in System Services at the bottom, you may wish to turn off Location-Based Apple Ads and Popular Near Me. Even if Apple is collecting this data anonymously, it’s still being used to sell things to you, not to provide useful services to you.
-
For most apps, change the Allow Location Access setting to Ask Next Time to force each app to prompt you again. If it asks at a point where it’s reasonable that it would need to know your location, such as Yelp wanting to show you nearby restaurants, grant it. If you don’t understand why it’s asking, or if the request seems unnecessary, deny the request.
-
With apps that obviously need location services, such a parking app that needs to know your area, change the setting to While Using App and see if that meets your needs.
-
Only if you clearly need to allow a particular app to track your location in the background—turn-by-turn navigation apps are the most common—should you change that setting to Always. Almost no apps require this authority.
There’s one unusual item in the list: Safari Websites. It’s a master switch that lets Web sites loaded in Safari ask for your location. That’s probably not a major privacy concern, but few Web sites provide sufficiently useful location-based features (mostly for finding nearby chain store outlets) that it’s worth bothering.
In the end, go with your gut. If thinking about a particular app or company potentially recording your location constantly gives you the creeps, turn it off and either find an alternative or do without. Legislation may be the only solution, in the end, to prevent companies from tracking and selling our data. For now, we can take steps to protect ourselves.
About arobasegroup
arobasegroup has been consulting with clients and advising the best use of Apple Technology since 1998. We listen to our customers and solve problems by addressing their specific, unique needs; we never rely on a one-size-fits-all solution or require them to use a specific product. arobasegroup is your advocate in all things related to information technology. Contact us to learn how we can help: info@arobasegroup.com.
(Featured image based on an original by Garik Barseghyan from Pixabay)