The days of the reading newspaper at the back of stalls are over. With the advancement of technology that comes to the smartphone. This not only provides man with ease of life but also equips them with the tools to track each other.
What is it about the phone that causes it to track? How to block my phone from being tracked?
Following the movements of a child, one of his parents, a spouse or a colleague does not require much technical expertise.
Mobile phones, equipped with GPS chips and permanently connected to mobile networks, are indeed perfect cookies. Many mobile applications retrieve the location of their users. This is to provide them with appropriate services or advertising. At Saint-Jean-de-Passy High School in Paris, students geolocated their parents to find out the times at which to wait for them.
What is less known is that these techniques can also track the smartphone of a loved one and follow him without his consent.
It is possible to guard against it. And we hope to highlight 4 steps that will help you in what you have searched for “how to block my phone from being tracked?”.
There are a few simple steps to make sure your smartphone has not been trapped, and to fix it if you have:
Step 1
Find the GPS settings and disable it. On most GPS phones you will find a “communications manager”. Its location varies depending on the phone model. Access your communications manager and turn off the GPS.
Step 2
Delete the geolocation software. This software also varies from phone to phone. You usually find it in Applications or Games folders. Use the process of uninstalling the phone to remove this software. Some programs use location-based services (LBS) that do not require GPS; therefore, deleting the software deletes the trace. You can also disable LBS from the program.
Step 3
Turn off the phone. This is the easiest way to avoid follow-up. When the phone is on, it is possible to track, as you must send and receive signals from the tower at all times in order to make and receive calls. Turning off the device stops the broadcast signal.
Step 4
Remove all “provider-provided services” from your mobile phone plan that includes tracking features. For example, the Verizon Chaperone service makes any phone traceable. If you do not want your phone to be followed, you can stop paying or withdrawing services provided by your provider.
Control the family sharing and position of the iPhone
The family sharing feature allows you to report your location in real-time with another iPhone owner. The latter can track your movements on a map for an hour, a day or indefinitely, depending on the settings. This step must be allowed. But it is possible to activate the sharing without the knowledge of one of his relatives, taking advantage of a few seconds of inattention.
To check that you have not been tracked yourself, go to the iPhone Settings, then in Privacy »Location Services and open the menu Share my location. The list of family members and contacts who have access to your geolocation appears here. It is then possible to stop its location by a person or by all of your contacts.
Manage Google Location Sharing on Android and iOS
Google offers a real-time location system for friends, similar to Apple’s. It works the same way on Android smartphones, where it is offered by default, or from the Google+ application on iPhone. When sharing is enabled, you can track a relative’s movement in real-time on Google Maps from your smartphone or the web.
The setting to enable or disable this share is in the Settings menu of the Google+ app, then Location Sharing, or in Google+ settings on the web. We then discover if the position tracking is activity and with whom sharing in real-time is allowed. It is possible to cut everything, to limit the follow-up to certain circles of contact or only to the people of confidence.
Observe the use of geolocation by suspicious applications
The settings above concern the majority of cases. There are other ways to monitor the movement of family members without their knowledge, more difficult to implement and to flush out. Publishers develop tools designed to track a person. This requires installing a special application on the smartphone of his victim. The best performers, like Spyera, are almost invisible.
In case of doubt, some checks are necessary. For example, monitor apps that may know the location of your smartphone ( Settings »Privacy» Location Service on iPhone, Settings »Location on Android) and cut the geolocation. You can also monitor mobile data exchanges, to detect suspicious transfer volumes ( Settings »Cellular network on iPhone, Settings» Use data on Android). A battery that discharges faster than usual can also be a sign that something is wrong. On the iPhone, we can disable the update of applications in the background ( Settings »General» Updating in the background). On Android, we will monitor the current processes ( Settings »Applications» In progress ) to search for any suspicious items.
If nothing is done, antivirus on Android can detect some cookies, such as F-Secure Mobile Security. In case of strong suspicions, it may be advisable to reinstall your smartphone according to the original settings. One certainty, however, is that it is illusory to think that one can completely escape the supervision of a sufficiently determined person. On this point, smartphones have not changed anything.
Conclusion
There are lots of ways by which your phone can be tracked but with the steps discussed in this guide, we are sure to limit this and keep our privacy. Be careful who you grant access to your phone as you never can tell. Be security conscious.