You know that feeling where you’re walking, or just out and about somewhere and for a second you get that feeling in your gut that someone is following you or even watching you. And so you quickly do that 360 turn only to find out that you were being your paranoid self again.
But what if I told you that someone would be able to tell you exactly where you were, how long you stayed there, and the date that you went. And they could even take it back from a year. So for all you iPhone users out there, your movements have been tracked for quite some time now. But of course, this doesn't only retain to iPhone users. This also includes Android users as well.
Nobody wants their private life in the public eye, there's a reason why we call it private. Nowadays, even on our social media, we can control what we want to share by simply clicking a few things under the privacy section. But is it really private? Or can someone access it?
Turns out, social media pages like Facebook can still have access to things.
Now let's talk about location. When we're out with friends, were probably taking photos and sharing them on Instagram, all while adding your location, and maybe even sharing them on Snapchat adding that cute geo filter that comes along with the place that you're in. All of which require you to have your location on.
When you have your location on, not only are people going to know where you are, but they can also track your movements, see the places you last visited and how long you stayed.
Tell me that's not creepy?
This goes beyond the stalking level.
For iPhone users, that personal tracker is deep. If you click on your ‘settings’ then click privacy, scroll down all to ‘system services’ scroll down just a little bit more until you see “Frequent locations’ and there my friends is where you can see everything, from the time, the day, how long you stayed, even trailing to year back.
For Android users, it’s much worse. All you tracking data is sent straight to none other than our “trusty” website Google.
So here’s the question we should ask, “Who is getting all of our information” and more importantly, “how the hell do we disable it?”
Your phone is the motherload of personal information for everyone to see. Even though you have a passcode and all, that doesn’t save you. Maybe it keeps your siblings or noisy people from snooping in on who you’re texting, but it doesn’t save you from others knowing everything about everything.
So how can one avoid this? Simple.
For Android users head over to your settings:
1. Scroll down and click location
2. Then click Google Location Setting
3. Click location reporting and location history and slide it off, for each one.
Then you’re set.
Or you can just always keep your location off.
For iPhone Users:
1. Tap on settings
2. Tap on privacy
3. Tap on location services
4. Scroll all the way down to Frequent locations
5. Switch it off
If your location is off already and is normally off, then you’re dismissed.
