Location

The location features on Pixel (and smart phones in general) allow you to have a personalized experience with a vast amount of convenient benefits. Location based services will help you get better search results, you can look up near by restaurants, nearby events, local news and more. You can also share your location with family and friends to help them find you in crowded areas and help them get to where you’re at and vice versa. Location sharing with friends and family can also provide a safety factor.

However, as with most double edge swords this can be concerning that you are being tracked everywhere you go. Because of this fact it is ideal you only share your location when necessary. People apps and Google don’t need to know where you are at all times. We’ll go over some options for managing location below.

Note: If you turn off your location completely on your phone apps, people, and services can’t get your location but you will still get local search results and advertisements based on the location of your IP Address if your goal is to be completely off the radar you’ll want to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and limit your IP Address Tracking. To learn more about limiting the tracking of your IP Address see the following options:

• VPN (Virtual Private Network)
• Use Randomized Mac (For Wi-Fi)
• Private DNS

Use Location

At the top of the screen after accessing the Location tab through your settings, you will see a switch to the right of where it says Use Location. This is where you can turn your location on or off entirely.

Recent Access

Select the See All link under Recent Access to view apps.

Under recent access, you can see which apps have accessed your location in the last 24 hours. If you use the apps that access your location then you have nothing to worry about. If you see apps that you don’t use accessing your location then limit the apps permission or uninstall the app.

Note: Having said that, some system apps require your location for your phone to work and you can not turn this off so do not freak out about these. Also, just because an app is tracking your location does not mean that something bad is happening. Some apps just want to track data to help their business and see how their business is doing. It’s not all bad but your data is yours and it is up to you if you want to share or not.

App Location Permissions

Under App Location Permissions you can view all of the apps that have access to your location. You will see four options to adjust app permissions:

• Allowed All The Time

  • These are all the apps that you have allowed permissions for all the time whether you are using the app or not.

• Allowed Only While Using

  • These will be all the apps that are only allowed to access your location if you are using the app.

• Ask Every Time

  • These are all the apps that must ask your permission before accessing your location even if you are using the app.

• Not Allowed

  • These are all the apps that are completely denied access to your location.

If Privacy is your main concern, it is recommended that you choose either the Allow Only While Using or the Ask Every Time option for apps that won’t work unless they have your location. For example, if Google Maps doesn’t have your location you can’t get directions so it’s better to not deny access to your location for every app. On the flip side, most apps don’t need your location all the time unless you’re using a feature that requires it.

Location Services

Emergency Location Service

When this is on and as long as emergency location services is available in your region, anytime you call or text emergency services, your location will automatically be sent to emergency response partners (police, first responders, firefighters, paramedics, etc.). If your preference for privacy is due to a safety issue, this is not a service that you want to have off. When you call or text emergency services and this is on, Emergency Location Services may use your precise device location and Google Location Accuracy even if those settings are off. If you opted into sending additional data during an emergency call, that information may be shared with response partners (police, first responders, firefighters, paramedics, etc.).

Google Location Accuracy

Google Location Accuracy helps improve the accuracy of your location by using Wi-Fi, your mobile network, and sensors. This data will be sent to google anonymously to improve location based services. If you turn this off, your phone will use GPS to determine location.

Google Location History

Google Location History will keep record of where your phone has been to give you a more personalized experience to give you personalized maps and suggestions based on places you’ve visited.

Google Location Sharing

Location Sharing will allow you to share your precise location with people you choose. People who you share your location with will be able to see your name, photo, and real time location across Google Services. The people you share your location with can also add location sharing notifications to know when you arrive at or leave specific locations. The information that is shared includes how you’re traveling, device info and the places you go like home or work.

This is a positive thing if you trust the person you’re sharing your location with. Having someone you trust tracking your location can be useful for safety related issues or so you can find each other to meet up more easily. Just make sure you know who you’re sharing your location with and don’t leave it on for people you only intend to share with temporarily.

Wi-Fi Scanning

This allows apps to use Wi-Fi to enhance your location services and make them more accurate. Having this setting off will save data usage and battery life. If you don’t have an unlimited data plan utilizing Wi-Fi features as much as possible will be useful. If you are unsure, contact your wireless carrier for more information.

Bluetooth Scanning

Like Wi-Fi Scanning, this feature allows the use of Bluetooth to enhance location services and make them more accurate.