The location is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of our mobiles. Thanks to this information, many of the apps we use are more complete and useful. But it is not always convenient for our mobile phone to reveal that location. That is why there are different ways to prevent them from knowing our location on the mobile .
There are many alternatives on Android so that they cannot access our location just like that. This is possible thanks to different operating system settings , which allow us not only to deactivate the location, but to do so in such a way that it is activated and deactivated gradually. We review the different ways to do it.
The quickest way
It is evident that the location is something that we can deactivate whenever we want, and eliminate the possibility of it being used, by deactivating it completely in the system. The quickest thing is undoubtedly to go to the phone settings and click on the Location section .
By deactivating the main slider, which is the one that activates or deactivates the function, the location will no longer be accessible to any of the applications, nor the operating system. It is the fastest way to do it.
Avoid triangulating your position
Another alternative that the phone uses to improve the location and obtain it, failing that, is through the Wifi and Bluetooth search. Within the same previous section, that of the location within the settings, you can deactivate two key features.
For example ” Wifi Search ” or ” Bluetooth Search ” which allows apps to improve location services by searching for Wifi networks or other nearby devices. By deactivating the location option, these functions disappear, but if you have it activated, you can also reduce the precision of the connection using these functions. Also, at any given time, it can be a good way to prevent the phone from consuming a lot of energy by looking for networks to triangulate our position.
Modulate permissions
Android permissions have improved a lot in recent years, to the point that we can not only give an app access to the function at any given time, but also partially or completely prevent it. To do this, it is best to do the following:
- Long press on the icon of the app where you want to deactivate the location
- Select the “information” icon
- Click on “permissions”
- Click on “location”
- Select “deny”
In this way we get to have the location of our phone active, but not accessible for those apps that we do not want to be able to use it. Therefore, even in those cases in which you think that a social network could share your location, it will be impossible for it to do so if you do not give it permission to access this functionality.
Prevent Google from accessing it
We have disabled the general location of the phone, of the apps, but what about Google services and the operating system in general. There is always the possibility that even deactivating the location, those of Mountain View can continue to collect that data from where we have been. To do this, it is necessary to deactivate the location services of our Google account. Something that, although it is done through the Google website, is accessible from the settings menu of our Android phone . For this we must do the following:
- Access the settings
- Click on “Accounts”
- Select “Google”
- It is also possible that your mobile has a specific Google section
- Press “Manage your Google account”
- Access “Data and personalization”
- Click on “Update history”
- Deactivate the function with the slider
In this way we end up with the possibility that Google has access to our location history from any of its apps, or simply by browsing through its search engine or using any service that may be related to the services of the Californian company.
Fake the location
One way to hide our location is to share a fake one. The best way for them not to know where we are is to share a false location with others . Something we can do with the help of a VPN. We can also do this from the settings of our Android mobile. To do this, do the following in your terminal:
- Enter settings
- Click on “other wireless connections” or search for VPN in the upper bar of the settings
- Select “VPN”
- Click on add connection
- Set up the connection
Here you will have to enter all the necessary data to connect to the VPN , which will be provided by your provider. Whenever we want to use this other location we will have to access this function and click on connect, entering the username and password, which on the other hand can be saved by the “autocomplete” function of Google. In this way, when we access a website, the location that we will show will be that of another country of our choice, and therefore we will be falsifying the location and hiding the real one.