It’s no secret that our apps use our locations—in fact, many of them need it to function properly. You wouldn’t get very far on your road trip if Google Maps couldn’t see your location. But smartphone makers aren’t making it clear how location sharing works, especially that you can choose between sharing your general location or your exact location. Unless you regularly change your privacy settings, chances are you’re broadcasting your exact location to any app that wants it.
There are two types of location data you can share with an app: First, general location. This option gives the app a radius for your current location, but not a point address. An app can know what neighborhood in a city you’re in, which can help give you information relevant to your area, but it won’t know you’re at your friends house at 123 Main St.
Precise location, on the other hand, is exactly what it sounds like: it’s a setting that lets an app see your specific location, so it knows exactly where you are. This is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on the application. Navigation apps come to mind, of course, since you’d rather Maps know you’re on the freeway than the lake that runs by.
Tagging with your current location is another common use case. For an app to automatically tag the restaurant, bar, park, or other specific location you’re hanging out at, it needs a precise location rather than a general location.
However, there are very few apps that need to know your precise location. GPS apps, yes; social networking apps, probably not. It takes very little time to type in the location you want to tag instead of having Instagram or Snapchat do it for you. For most applications, having a vague understanding of where you are is fine, and it’s one less piece of personal data you need to share with these companies.
Is precise location a dangerous feature?
Sometimes your precise location appears in the news as something bad actors can use to target you. The claim is that because Precise Location shares your exact whereabouts, someone could use one of your social media posts to track you down.
Pinpoint location and location tracking in general have their faults, but they probably won’t allow a stranger on the internet to stalk you. While the feature allows apps to see your specific location, it’s not public information. Take Instagram, for example. It may have your precise location, but it doesn’t use it in your posts unless you want it to. If you don’t tag your precise location in the post, there’s no way for others to know where you are for sure. Instagram also doesn’t save geotags on pictures you take in the app, but even if you upload a geotagged photo, followers can’t download the original photo and see that tag.
Geotagging, however, is something to keep in mind. Your phone’s camera probably uses precise location by default to add the photo’s exact location to the file’s metadata. All this means is that the location stays with the photo. If you send this photo directly to someone else, they can see where they were when the photo was taken. If you’re interested in removing this data before sharing your photos with the world, you can check out our guide here.
The issue here is more about privacy than security. If you keep precise location turned on, you’re sharing your exact location with any company that’s interested (and they all are). Even though Apple and Google try to prevent developers from selling your data to advertisers and other companies, it still happens. The good news, if you can call it that, is that all this data is anonymous and not directly linked to you. While it may seem like your apps are selling your location data to Big Brother to spy on your movements, in practice, companies are using that data to sell you better (we live in a boring dystopia, after all ).
Still, it’s creepy! Turning off precise location does not prevent companies from receiving and selling your location data, but it does prevent them from receiving and selling your exact location.
Manage precise location settings on your smartphone
The problem is that precise location is a sneaky feature, especially on the iPhone. When you open an app that wants information about your location for the first time, you’ll see a pop-up asking for permission. This popup, complete with a minimap preview of your location, is familiar to everyone on iOS, and it usually asks if you want to share your location with the app all the time, only when you’re using the app, or never . .
What’s not overtly clear here, though, is the hidden Precise toggle on the minimap, which is set to “On” by default. If you want to turn it off from the start, you’ll need to turn it off here before you choose your primary location settings in the popup window.
Screenshot: Jake Peterson
However, it’s not too late to fix the problem if you’ve already granted these permissions. You can manage precise location settings on any iPhone running iOS 14 or later, or an Android device running Android 12 or later.
On iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, then choose the app you want to manage. Now, make sure the toggle next to “Precise Location” is turned off and you’re good to go. On Android, touch and hold the app you want to manage, then go to App info > Permissions > All permissions. Under Location, make sure “Approximate location” is turned on and “Precise location” is turned off.
Keeping precise location off for most apps is a good privacy practice. While you’re at it, be sure to review all of your iPhone’s location settings, as well as your Google Account.