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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Location settings can expose private data.
• Several phone signals can reveal your location.
• A few privacy checks can reduce tracking.

You know where you were this afternoon. Perhaps so do your family, friends, or colleagues. However, you might also have unwittingly shared your whereabouts with companies and other organizations.

Connected devices give us the opportunity and convenience of on-the-go maps, satellite navigation, sharing our location with those we trust, and even ordering products and services for quick delivery. But the combination of GPS systems, cellular towers, Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth, and other signals can combine to pinpoint your location — even when we don’t want it to.

Also: 7+ phone privacy settings to check and turn off ASAP – to avoid exposing your personal data

You might think turning off GPS on your smartphone means that you can’t be tracked. However, even if you think your location is private, carrying your handset around and connecting to specific services can still reveal where you are.

If you want to understand how location tracking on your smartphone works and some of the tactics you can employ to reduce the risk of others knowing where you are, read on.

What is GPS location tracking?

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is one of the main ways your smartphone can be tracked.

GPS uses a combination of satellites, signals, and your device to calculate your distance from specific satellites, revealing your coordinates.

Also: The best GPS trackers for kids in 2026: Expert recommended

This technology is integrated into modern smartphones and can be accurate to within a few meters, as long as there aren’t many environmental obstacles, such as buildings and trees. It is used for satellite navigation, agriculture, and mapping, and in our daily lives, it is ideal for planning travel routes, tagging content with our location, and accepting online deliveries.

Wi-Fi signals and positions

If you connect your smartphone to a Wi-Fi hotspot, this may reveal your location and allow you to be tracked. Wi-Fi hotspots typically cover between 50 feet and 150 feet, although the actual range will depend on hardware, objects, obstacles, and walls that can hamper Wi-Fi signals.

Once you’ve connected, your device — and its associated MAC address — will likely be logged. Homes, hotels, coffee shops, parks, and entertainment venues may retain this data, and over time, it could reveal your movements and habits, such as visiting a specific store at the same time every week.

Also: The best Bluetooth trackers of 2026: Our top picks to keep tabs on your stuff

Logging in and out of your internet service via your smartphone can also provide internet service providers (ISPs) with information on when you are at home and for how long.

It’s not just direct connections to a Wi-Fi hotspot that can reveal your location. If Wi-Fi is turned on, your smartphone will continually scan for potential networks to join — and this could broadcast your device’s identifying features.

Cellular data

While its accuracy is limited to the cellular tower you are connected to and its signal range, if someone is trying to track down a specific device and its user, cellular links can provide a clue.

When you enable cellular data and perform an activity such as making a call or sending a text message, you are automatically connected to the nearest cellphone tower, and your request is routed through that cellular network. To provide the best coverage for consumers, cellular towers are strategically placed with overlap to reduce blind spots where possible.

Also: This one iPhone setting immediately stops all apps from tracking you – turn it off today

This means that cellular triangulation can be used to track someone’s physical location if the person’s smartphone is active and turned on by calculating the time signals take to reach overlapping cellphone towers.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is another short-range technology that can allow your smartphone to be tracked. With a range of approximately 33 feet, Bluetooth connects to nearby devices such as other mobile devices, speakers, and smart home gadgets — but this connection can also reveal the approximate location of your device.

App information sharing and leaks

The apps you use can be among the worst culprits for leaking your location and enabling tracking. A range of apps will request access to your GPS and location-sharing features, including health and fitness software, parental control apps, weather services, social media platforms, and maps.

If you are using a smartphone provided by your company, the device may have location tracking enabled, either via GPS or through dedicated productivity apps.

Also: You’re being tracked online – 9 easy ways to stop the surveillance

There’s no guarantee that the data these apps collect will remain on your device, and in many cases, agreements allowing this information to be shared with third parties are buried in service terms. Apps may also connect with APIs and analytics services that can access your approximate location, interests, activities, and more for marketing and targeted advertising.

Furthermore, if an app has security issues, user data could end up exposed or leaked online.

“App store review processes focus on overt fraud; they do not meaningfully evaluate whether an application’s business model depends on continuously harvesting location intelligence,” Ted Miracco, CEO of cybersecurity company Approov, told ZDNET. “The result is a trust gap where users assume an approved application is a privacy-vetted application. It is not. Seemingly innocuous permissions can construct persistent location histories, infer social relationships, identify patterns of life, and feed data brokerage ecosystems that operate far beyond the visibility of either regulators or end users.”

Mobile browsers

Mobile browsers, too, can collect your location data and share it with third parties. In a recent study by Surfshark, 8 of the 15 most popular mobile browsers — including Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari — collect your location data, ranging from approximate locations to precise ones. 

“Your browser maps your daily routine and weekend plans before you’ve shared them with anyone,” commented Justas Pukys, senior product manager at cybersecurity company Surfshark. “This location tracking is a profit-driven exploitation of personal habits, rather than a technical necessity for the browser to function.”

What about wearables?

Wearables not only look stylish but can also be genuinely beneficial to your day-to-day life when they are connected to mobile devices.

Smartwatches, smart rings, and fitness trackers of all shapes and sizes can monitor our sleeping habits, exercise, stress levels, heart rate, ECG readings, temperature, and other medical and physical data points to give us the information we need to potentially improve our routines and health. One of our own authors at ZDNET said he owes his life to an Apple Watch that warned him of an abnormal heart rhythm that he was completely unaware of.

Also: What you give up when you put on a smartwatch or ring

On top of that, wearables may use Bluetooth and GPS data — such as when we are on a run — to track our location, the distance we’ve traveled, and our average speed or pace.

There’s little federal regulation around the protection of device-based health data, and so it is up to us to treat wearables the same way as our smartphones when it comes to data protection.

Consider reading the privacy policies linked to your wearable, deleting any data from any wearable you no longer use, and keeping an eye on which devices or services your product connects to; otherwise, you might accidentally leak your information.

Combining signals

GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular data, Bluetooth, wearables, and apps can all individually expose your location via your smartphone, but data points stitched together from each could create a far more accurate picture of your location, daily movements, and habits — such as where you live, where you work, and where you go to socialize.

Who and what could track you?

Who, or what, would bother to try to track your location through mobile technology? Mobile tracking is far more ingrained in our daily lives than you may think, and it can be far easier to do than crime shows and dramas on TV portray.

• Advertisers: Your data is a goldmine for advertisers and marketing companies. Location check-ins, favorite local businesses, tagged photos, local reviews, app usage, and online shopping — all of these records can be used for targeted advertising.
• Data brokers: Data brokers are a security nightmare. These companies purchase records to sell to other companies or individuals, and your information — including location check-ins — could end up being aggregated for consumer profiling. If so, data gathered from your mobile interactions could end up in the hands of organizations without your consent.
• Friends and family: With or without your consent, friends and family can track your location using your smartphone. This is usually through dedicated apps such as Life360 and is generally for safety reasons — although there is capacity for abuse.
• Employers: If you use a company-issued device, it may have location tracking enabled, either directly or through a work-related mobile app.
• App developers: App developers may collect data from your smartphone for user analytics, and if the app has GPS and location permissions, this could include your location.
• Technology providers: If you enable smartphone operating functions such as Find My Phone, companies such as Google and Apple could have access to your location data.
• Cybercriminals and stalkers: If your smartphone has been compromised through a software vulnerability, physical tampering, or the covert installation of a tracking app, your location could be exposed.

Also: How to share your location on Android: 5 quick and easy ways – including by text

How to stop location tracking on your phone

Follow the steps below to limit the risk of your location being tracked or exposed through your smartphone.

• Turn off GPS: This is one of the quickest ways you can limit location tracking on your phone. Turn it off, and only enable this setting when it is absolutely necessary, such as when you need to use a map.
• Turn off connectivity settings you do not need: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS can all reveal your location. When you don’t need them, keep them turned off. You can also disable scans for nearby networks in Wi-Fi > More connection settings or use Flight Mode to disable wireless signals and transmissions.
• Use a VPN: A virtual private network (VPN) service is one of the best ways to hide your IP address and, with that, your digital location. While it can’t do much about cellular connections or GPS, you can use a VPN to appear to be from a different location when accessing online services.
• Delete old, unused apps: Old, forgotten apps you no longer use can compromise your privacy and security. If there are apps on your smartphone you no longer use — especially those with location permissions — delete them. If you change your mind, you can always reinstall them later.
• Review app permissions: You should take the time to audit your apps and review their permissions. Does a currency converter really need access to location sharing? If there are any that seem too extensive, disable these permissions or delete the app entirely.
• Use a privacy-first mobile browser: DuckDuckGo, the Tor Browser, and Brave are among our recommendations for browsers that will not collect or share location-based data.
• Be mindful of wearables: Be mindful of what information your wearable device is collecting about you and where this data may end up — especially if it is connecting to other nearby devices or equipment.
• Keep your phone and apps updated: Your location data could be exposed or compromised if you don’t keep your smartphone and apps up to date with new security fixes and improvements.
• Review your privacy settings: Review your smartphone’s privacy settings, and pay particular attention to location services. Enable or disable any features you don’t want, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scanning, Google location sharing, and location accuracy.
• Review the terms of service: Many of us are guilty of scrolling past them, but knowing what your smartphone, wearable, or app collects about you — including geolocation data — helps you make a more informed choice about the services you use.
• Consider what you share online: While not strictly mobile-based, one of the best ways to hide your location is to be careful about what you share and with whom.