Stop Google tracking your location

July 17, 2021 TH Author

keeps is your location data.

Doing a Google search or using Google Maps gives the company your location to pinpoint accuracy. Why does Google want this? To serve you more relevant ads and search results and so on, but for some people, that’s an unacceptable privacy tradeoff.

Here’s how to stop handing over your location data to Google.

Must read: These three simple tips will keep your iPhone safe from hackers

Fire up your browser, and go to Google.com.
Click on your profile pic and sign into your account.
Click on your profile pic followed by Manage your Google Account
From Privacy & Personalization, select Manage your data & personalization
Go to Activity controls and select Manage your activity controls
Go to Web & App Activity and switch the toggle to off
On the screen that follows (a screen explaining the downsides to turning this feature off), click Pause

Phew! That was a long trip!

But what about all the location data Google has collected? That’s still stored, but if you want to delete it, here’s how (we have to retrace some of our steps!):

Fire up your browser, and go to Google.com.
Click on your profile pic followed by Manage your Google Account
From Privacy & Personalization, select Manage your data & personalization
Go to Activity controls and select Location History
Select Manage activity to go to your Google Timeline
Click on the settings icon to the left of a button marked Map, and from the pop-up select Delete all Location History
Confirm that you do indeed want to delete location data, and click Delete Location History