Google offers a Location History feature that tracks the places where users have been over certain periods of time. Users who are uncomfortable with being tracked on where they have been are given the option to deactivate the feature, which Google says will stop the company from collecting the location data.

Most mobile phones are equipped with GPS, which uses signals from satellites to determine a device’s location – however, with Google Location Services, additional information from nearby Wi-Fi, mobile networks, and device sensors can be collected to determine your device’s location.

Stop Google tracking on an Android device

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap on “Google Account.”
3. Scroll down to “Manage your data & personalization” and select it.
4. Look under “Activity controls.” Here, as with the browser version, you can turn off or pause the monitoring of various activities.

How Does Your Browser Determine Your Location? Your browser uses different types and sources of information to identify your location. These include your IP address, geolocation via HTML5 in your browser, and your PC’s language and time settings.

Google chrome never shares your location without your permission. By default it sets your browser location setting as ” Ask me when a site tries track my physical location”.

Unfortunately, faking the location on your Android or iPhone isn’t very straightforward. There isn’t a “fake GPS location” setting built in to either iOS or Android and neither do most apps let you spoof your location through a simple option. Setting up your phone to use fake GPS only affects your location.

Anyone trying to track your device after it’s been switched off will only be able to trace it to the location it was before it was switched off.