It's super convenient that smartphones nowadays can do anything with location information

It's super convenient that smartphones nowadays can do anything with location information. At the same time it also provides a privacy issue, because information can be identified and that unfortunately happens. How do you prevent your smartphone turns into a tracking device?

Tip 1: Rigorous
What is and is not shared with location information sometimes lies in very subtle settings, and we can imagine that you're somewhat nervous of that. Although we discuss the main ways to avoid in this article that your smartphone turns into a device that maps throughout daily life location-wise. There is one way to ensure that there is no guaranteed data can be collected about you and that is completely disabling location services. Sounds great right? Perhaps, but for many people this will be too rigorous. Because if you completely disable location services, you can no longer use its advantages (and there really are). Interest that you do not, then you are after reading this first tip ready. Find the settings to your location settings and disable these. That's it, now there is nothing recorded about you.

Do not you want Android location in any way whatsoever tracking? Turn location than in its entirely.
Tip 2: Location History
What many Android users unfortunately do not know is that Google keeps very precisely where they are at any time of the day. As accurate so that you can map an entire day, week, month or year using the location history of your smartphone. Luckily, you can turn it off easily. Search settings Location and press Google Location History . Pressure on Google Location History , and then three dots right and then click View / manage to see for themselves how much information you are mapped, because that's very confrontational. To ensure that Google data will no longer keep you uncheck On . Remember then not even to print on the bottom delete Location History . If you already use multiple Google accounts on your Android phone, you can top up the cup Location History Press to view / manage the history of other accounts.

Google keeps very accurate with where you are in a day, but you can disable happy.
I have nothing to hide
When the discussion about privacy flares up, there are always those who cry it all I do not care, I have nothing to hide. But that is not what privacy is all about. If tomorrow someone step off at you and say, listen, I've mapped the past six months by the minute where you were and what you did, you would be afraid of this, and rightly so. Because no one's business. Nobody would tell a strange but apparently many people find it no problem to provide all this information to companies that are making money. Location services are not bad, it's great that your smartphone knows where you are and you can give useful information on the basis thereof. But it is important that you have control over what happens to that information, or at least knows what information is collected.

Tip 3: Wireless networks
You'd think GPS is the only way to gather information about your location, but nothing is less true. On the basis of the wireless networks around you, you can include location very accurately mapped. The way this works is, moreover, easy. Companies like Google bring the locations of wireless networks card, and therefore can link these to geographic data. That does not seem so useful, but when you know where wireless networks are linking to you, it suddenly becomes child's play to determine your location very carefully. And thereby helps enormously that your Android device standard is set so that nonstop is scanned for wireless networks nearby. To disable this, navigate to Settings > Wi-Fi and press right on the menu and then click Advanced . Now, when you remove the checkmark at Always allow scanning , Google location services and other apps may not scan for wireless networks. So you yet another piece of anonymous.

Your location is not only mapped via GPS, wireless networks, also play a big role in that.
Tip 4: Apps monitors
To measure is to know, and that in this case is absolutely applied. It is noteworthy that Android standard has no built-in option that allows individual apps to deny access to location services, but it is still important that you know which apps can access your location services and how often it is used . You can do it easily through to location to navigate.

Incidentally, you do not of course this step to perform when you have disabled location services entirely. Under the heading Recent location requests shows you which apps have recently used location. Incidentally, you see besides the fact that the apps have attempted to determine your location, too much battery power they consume and that is often not small (one also has to do with the other). It's good to be here now and to look, to understand how many apps you have given access to your location.

In the next version of Android (Marshmallow, 6.0) it is possible to determine an app which he has access. We do this even can not test at the time of writing.

Tip 5: Manage apps
Of course it is a bit harsh (and dubious) that if you have an app after installation given access to your location, you can not withdraw more such permission. Previously, it was not entirely without rooting your Android device (say jailbreak), but today there are fortunately apps. One such app is Mobo Clean (the only downside is that you're not using the app Google Play Store to download). When the app is launched, press Renew your Android in the middle of the screen and then click Next . Then select the apps you want to revoke access and press again Clean . What the app is doing, all the apps you selected, uninstall and reinstall again (so be careful with apps that you want to lose any data such as WhatsApp). Then you enter into the final step of what rights you want to withdraw from the app (s), such as: Acquire location . So, you indeed itself determine which app is allowed to see.

Tip 6: Apps close
It may be that you do not find so much that the apps on your Android device to your request location information, but indeed you'd like to decide when that happens. The purpose is very simple solution: make sure you close the apps you do not use. Incidentally, you can use the app we covered in Tip 5 also indicate that you do not want apps continue to run in the background when you close them.

To close them manually, however, you press on the recent apps icon (the icon to the right of home page) on the touch screen, or press and hold the Home button for a few seconds if you do not have such an icon. Then you will see a list of all the apps running in the background. To close an app, swipe aside the icon. It is not a foolproof method (there are also apps that even then you still can collect data), but it seems at least that bring a long list of apps constantly unnecessarily identify all location data (also good for your battery).

Close apps off when you are not using them and not let them run in the background.
iOS
Tip 7: Complete shutdown
In iOS is the privacy issue quite a lot more transparent, but even there you'll be amazed at the amount of information collected by Apple (like the apps on your iPhone). The only difference is that Apple has repeatedly stated that it is not interested in user data for commercial use, but to trust the company right away blindly, is another story. As in Android is to iOS possible to completely turn off location services (obviously losing the practical benefits). You do this by navigating to Settings > Privacy > Location Services . When you disable this function, it is from that moment on nothing more shared.

Tip 8: Locations by app
But just as in Android is completely turn off all location services perhaps too rigorous, you can indeed also reap the benefits. Oddly enough, where it is normally true that Android is more flexible when it comes to institutions, it is true iOS in this area that makes it trivially easy for individual apps to deny access to location services. You configure this by again navigate to the menu Location Services in Settings > Privacy . Now scroll down. There you can see a list of apps you have installed. By clicking on the name of an app, you can indicate whether the app may use Location Services or not. For example, it is conceivable that you want to give Google Maps permission, but an app like Hangouts or Facebook is not. Some apps offer besides the option Never , and when using the option Always . These are the apps that you should keep in mind, since they can even trace the whereabouts when they are not active.

Control which apps when accessing location services.
Tip 9: System Locations
Finally, there is an option that is a little tucked away, in our opinion a bad thing, because a lot of data is collected (similar to Google Location History). When you scroll all the way down in the list of apps from the menu Location Services in Settings > Privacy ,you'll see the option System . Press it, you will see a long list of options that you probably have not previously had seen on your iPhone. So here is determined that Apple can give you alerts based on your location and that ads may be displayed in apps based on your location. An important option to view is frequently visited locations . That is the function that Apple keeps track of the sites you visit frequently, just like Google does. You can easily disable this feature and then press Clear History .