Your iPhone uses information from your cell service, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS to pinpoint its location, and since you almost always have your phone on you, your location as well. That information can be useful for a lot of things, such as letting others know where you are or finding your phone when it’s lost. Other times, it’s just more data that services and companies collect about you, creating privacy concerns. Show
The good news is you can tighten your controls so that apps are only accessing your location when it’s necessary. Toggling your location settings can differ from phone to phone, depending on what model of iPhone you have and what version of iOS it’s running. The following directions were tested on an iPhone 11 running iOS 15; if you’re running a different version of iOS, there shouldn’t be much difference. Turn off location access for specific appsLocation data is useful for some apps (for example, if you want to order food) and necessary for others, like maps or ride-shares. However, if an app asks for your location and you don’t feel it needs the data, you can disable location services for that app. Here’s how to do that.
If you click “While Using the App,” then that app will have access to your location either when it’s open or when it’s in use in the background. For more ways to limit location access, click on “System Services” at the bottom of the “Location Services” screen. Here, you can toggle location access for a number of things, including Wi-Fi, time zone, emergency calls, and Apple News and App Store ads that are relevant to your location. To the left of some of the service toggles, you may see a small arrow. A hollow arrow means the item may have access to your location under certain conditions; a purple arrow means the item has recently used your location, while a gray arrow means it used your location sometime in the last 24 hours. For more ways to limit location access, click on “System Services.”Arrows show which apps are accessing your location.To check whether your phone is still collecting location data, go down to the very bottom of the “System Services” screen and toggle the switch on for “Status Bar Icon.” This will display an arrow at the top of your screen when an app on your phone is accessing your location. If you want to truly go off the grid, you can disable location services to prevent your phone from collecting any location data at all:
If you have an iPhone 11 or laterIf you have a phone designed with Apple’s U1 chip — such as an iPhone 11 or later — and have disabled location services for specific apps, you may find that you still sometimes see the arrow. According to Apple, this is because these models use ultra wideband technology, which Apple says is regulated, so the phones use location services to determine if they’re in an area where ultra wideband use is restricted. The iPhone requests location data when location preferences are set on an app-per-app basis, so switching off location services for your phone overall will stop these location requests since your phone won’t be able to collect any location data. Share your location with individualsIf you’re walking alone at night or you’re in an Uber by yourself, you might want a friend or family member to know your location in real time. If you have iOS 13 or later, you can use the Find My app to share your location with family and friends.
It will then start sharing your location. In order to switch it off, click on your contact’s name in the “Find My” app under “People,” then tap “Stop Sharing My Location.” Confirm by clicking on the “Stop Sharing Location” button that pops up. (Note: For some reason, the “Share Until End of Day” selection seems to always select midnight Pacific Time rather than the end of day local time. For example, I’m on Eastern Time, and so “end of day” is always somewhere around 3AM. I’ve reached out to Apple to find out if they have a fix for this and will let you know if / when I hear back.) Send recurring notificationsYou can have your phone send out recurring notifications as well. These are useful if you want your friend or relative to know when a you get to a location (or don’t get there).
You can notify the person when you arrive at or leave a specific location, and send the notification just once or every time you arrive or leave (for example, if you want to let somebody know every day when you get home from work). Share via MessagesYou can share your location through Messages as well:
Update September 17th, 2021, 10:15AM ET: This article was originally published on December 12th, 2019, and has been updated to account for differences in iOS and in available services. Update November 1st, 2021 9:45AM ET: A note was added explaining “Share Until End of Day” always assumes you’re on Pacific Time. How do you track a family members iPhone?Share locations with family members and locate their lost devices on iPhone. Go to Settings > [your name] > Family Sharing, then scroll down and tap Location.. Tap the name of a family member you want to share your location with. You can repeat this step for each family member you want to share your location with.. How do you track someone on my iPhone?See the location of a friend
Tap People at the bottom of the screen, then tap the name of the person you want to locate. If your friend can be located: They appear on a map so you can see where they are. If your friend can't be located: You see “No location found” below their name.
How do I track someone on my iPhone without them knowing?The answer is yes, you can track an iPhone without them knowing by using the Find My iPhone app. This app is designed to help you locate your lost or stolen iPhone. You can also use this app to track someone's phone without them knowing. All you need to do is log in and select 'Find my iPhone.
How can I track my husbands iPhone?The right way is to ask your husband to add you to share Find My to allow you to track him. He would open Settings, tap on his name, then Find My and turn on Sharing. If you know his Apple ID and password you can use that at https://icloud.com/find.
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