Location Services on iPhone

Location Services on iPhone: a reader asks,

I read an article from the Washington Post saying to turn off location services to keep the apps from tracking me. Should I?

I would suggest you be judicious about which apps you allow to use location services, rather than turning them all off. The latter is simple: tap Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, then slide the top slider off. But this can make it hard to do some of the things you want your iPhone to do. For example, weather, driving directions, and local news feeds.

Instead of turning off location services for everything, take some time to review the list of apps sharing your location and turn off only those that don’t need it. You can find this list at the same settings place as above, just scroll down.

First, you’ll see the Share My Location item. Here’s where you’d see that you’re continuously sharing your location with your family. If you’re sharing your location in the Find My app, open it to see who else can see your location. You can also check your Contacts for each person and either turn on or off location sharing.

Then scroll down the list of apps in Location Services. You’ll likely see most of them with a “While Using” option. Tap to change it. If you see an app that has “Always” you can change that. I would leave the Weather app (or any other 3rd party app that gives you weather information) set to always, or “While Using” – it depends on how often you want to know the weather at your location, and how often your location changes. For Apple Maps, I have it set for “While Using the App or Widgets”. News apps generally should be set to “While Using”. Some apps, such as the Messages app, have a “Ask Next Time Or When I Share” option.

In general, don’t allow location sharing for apps that don’t need it, which is likely most of the apps you have installed on your iPhone. Set them to “Never”. If you run into a problem later (say, that app actually needs your location), you can always come back to this setting and change it.

Another setting to consider is the “Precise Location” slider on each app’s settings page. For weather and driving directions (Apple Maps, Google Maps, etc.), I would leave this on. Maybe also for the camera app, if you want the location recorded for pictures you take. But for everything else, I’d slide that slider off. Some other specialty apps might need your precise location (such as AAA, AllTrails, airline apps, astronomy apps, parking apps, etc.); use your best judgment. You can always change things later if you find you need a feature that isn’t working because you’ve restricted location services. I think it’s better to start off more restrictive and work your way towards less restrictive as you use apps on your iPhone.

If you follow that article’s advice and turn off location sharing for everything, I think you’ll quickly find it very annoying. While I think privacy is important, my personal take is that too many alarming news stories and social media posts blow privacy concerns out of proportion to most people’s personal situations. If you were a foreign journalist, for example, you should be more concerned about sharing your location. But for most of us, we want to balance our privacy concerns with the usability of our technological devices. Just my .02.