Apple maintains privacy and security as two of its core values and has detailed resources on how to protect your devices, accounts, and personal safety. Follow along with us to take a look at the recommended steps to check who can see your iPhone’s location including how to make sure no one can track you.
Apple has a 20-page support guide called “Accessing Device and Data When Personal Safety is at Risk.” Whether you have personal safety concerns or it’s time for a privacy and security check, the steps below are helpful.
Let’s dive into how to check who can see your iPhone’s location, how to adjust location settings, and more.
Who can see your iPhone’s location? How do you make sure that no one can track you?
Summer 2022 update: With iOS 16, Apple has an additional privacy feature called Security Check that immediately stops sharing your iPhone’s location, and read all about it in our full coverage.
Here’s what Apple recommends:
Turn off location services completely
- If you need to turn off all possible location and tracking services (temporarily or permanently), head over to Settings > Privacy (Privacy and Security in iOS 16)
- Faucet Site services On the top
- change file turn off Next to Location Services, make sure by selecting turn it off
- Keep in mind that some services will not be able to work with location services turned off
- Apple highlights when this switch is turned off that “Location services will be disabled for all apps, but custom location services will be temporarily restored if you use Find My iPhone to enable Lost Mode.”
What apps can see your iPhone’s location?
- In the same settings section (Settings > Privacy > Site services) look down
- Remember that you will need to turn on the main site services switch
- You will see a list of apps (Apple apps and third party apps)
- Single click to manage individual site services
- You will get the option to allow access to the site ‘Never’, ‘Ask Next Time’, ‘While Using the App’ or ‘Always’
- in addition to, You can toggle “Exact location” If you want to give the app location permission but don’t want it to be selected
When you see the Location Services icons in your iPhone’s status bar, or in the settings we covered above, here’s what they mean:
Managing location services with Find My
- in Settings > Privacy > Site services Faucet share my location
- You can now toggle the button next to Share My Location which will prevent family and friends you see below from seeing where you are
- You can also manage how Find My iPhone works by clicking Find my iPhone
Who can see your iPhone’s location using Find My?
- Go to Find my app
- Click on anyone from the list below
- Swipe to the bottom of the info card
- Choose Stop sharing my location
- Alternatively, you can do the same from Settings > Privacy > Site services > share my location > family/friends
Who can see your iPhone’s location in third-party apps?
- If you share your location with others in third-party apps, it will not appear in the main iOS settings
- back to Settings > Privacy > Site services To consider applications that have access to the location
- If you’re not sure if the app has access, you can revert them all back to “Ask Next Time” or “Never”
- Popular third-party apps that will have access to your iPhone’s location include Google Maps, Facebook, Instagram and other social media apps, Uber/Lyft, and other travel, fitness, and shopping apps (keep in mind that even reassuring apps may have or require access to the site)
Go ahead and protect your Apple devices
Additionally, you can read Apple’s full 20-page guide about the device and data privacy here.
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