How to see if your location is being shared

The location checks on a mobile phone happen in the background, is relatively efficient, and can go unnoticed. Today’s smartphones calculate fairly accurate GPS coordinates and send that location through the Internet. While we travel, we turn on tracking as a safety step, but I recently wondered: Can you tell when someone checks your mobile phone location? 

Generally, you cannot tell when someone checks the location of an Android smartphone or iPhone. A brief icon is displayed in the notification bar when GPS is used by location services. Many apps or system processes can trigger a location check. Cellular providers know your location at all times.

There’s a surprising amount of location tracking going on when you own a smartphone. Read on to find out why your mobile service company is tracking you and some other uses of location tracking.

Why Your Cellular Provider Is Tracking Your Location

We usually don’t consider how cellular phone service works. We simply subscribe to a company’s plan and start using the service.

For your phone to ring when someone calls, chime for a text, or connect you to the Internet, your device needs to be continuously connected to a cellular tower. The phone company keeps a centralized log of which phones are connected to which towers. They then route your service through the best-connected tower.

This coordination happens once every few minutes to several hours depending on factors like your usage, your movement, and the geographic location of the towers. The log of tower connections is kept for varying lengths of time based on the company’s policies.

Can You Tell When Your Mobile Carrier Tracks Your Location?

There’s no direct way to see when your mobile carrier reviews their logs. Go ahead and assume you’re being tracked.

How To Hide From Your Cellphone Company

There are a few ways to stop your phone from updating your mobile provider.

First, simply turning off your mobile device is not enough to stop it from transmitting. You need to remove the battery. Yet, many devices, mostly smartphones, also have a secondary battery. This extra battery is mainly used to keep the clock running. There is some research showing this extra power source can be used to send transmissions to nearby receivers.

Wrapping your switched-off phone in a few layers of aluminum foil will prevent any additional signal transmission or reception. This will further ensure no connectivity to your cellular provider.

As I write this article, I wanted to test this bit of research for myself. I went to the kitchen and grabbed the roll of aluminum. I successfully called an old, pre-paid mobile while unwrapped. I then wrapped it in foil like a burrito. The second test call went to voicemail and the phone inside the aluminum did not ring.

Apps & Services Tracking Your Location

Your phone’s location is used to help apps but can also be shared so others can keep track of you. Google Maps location sharing and Apple’s Find My are the two main ways users can share locations between trusted users.

Google Maps

Google offers limited-duration and continuous sharing of location updates through its Maps service. If you have a Google account, you’re ready to share directly in the Maps app to other Google users or via a temporary web link for those outside the ecosystem. Google’s full support page provides great instructions.

Apple Find My

The People tab inside Apple’s Find My app is your destination for location sharing between iPhone users. MacRumors does a great job explaining the service in this video from YouTube.

Other Location Sharing Services

There are several cross-platform alternatives for location sharing: Life360 and GeoZilla are designed for family safety. 

Another option to check out is Hauk on the F-Droid app store which is a free and open-source software (FOSS), location-sharing app.

Messengers can be horribly insecure when sharing location. I have a list of 11 messaging apps that you’re likely using to send your location. I recommend using #7-11 only.

For Google Maps on Android, you’ll see two brief location notifications.

GuidingTech has a good post showing how to view your Android notification logs.

Android 11 surfaced an easier-accessed Notification History list. Pull down the notifications tray and tap History. All dismissed notifications are presented chronologically.

When Google’s Find My Device service is used, a brief notification is displayed and again can be easily seen in the notification log.

For Apple iPhones, the Find My service through iCloud functions similarly. There’s a brief notification icon in the status bar when the device’s location is checked.

You can read more about iOS location and privacy on Apple’s support site.

For the other location-sharing services, each discloses your location updates differently. Please note that the operating system should offer the best glimpse into telling when the service checks your phone’s location.

Depending on your security or privacy threat model, your smartphone’s location tracking may be helpful.

How To Find Your Lost Smartphone

Remote device location and administration is another use case for location data. Google’s Find My Device and Apple’s Find My iPhone (now combined with Find My Friends into “Find My”) are the out-of-the-box options for locating your lost or stolen device.

Find My Device provides

• Status on last seen date/time, network connectivity and battery level, phone identifier (IMEI), and location on a map
• Remote administration features, including
  • high-volume ring
  • display an on-screen message
  • secure lock and sign out of the Google account
  • remote erase/wipe the content on the device

Find My iPhone provides

• Date and time last connected to iCloud, location on a map, approximate battery level, and if the device is charging
• Remote ability to ring the phone, set the iOS device to lost mode, and remotely erase

The best privacy-respecting alternative for tracking a lost or stolen smartphone is Prey. The service offers free and paid tiers of service and can track mobile devices as well as laptops.

For all these lost/stolen phone services, you can remotely secure the device and post a message on-screen if you want to disclose the device has been tracked.

What To Do Now?

For all mobile phone users, remember that your approximate location is a technical requirement for providing cellular service and mobile data. Your carrier continuously logs your location and may be required to disclose this history through legal information requests. Private individuals will not have this location data.

Smartphone users can tell when someone or some service checks their location. You can find some tracking history by digging into your device’s apps or settings. Users may also have the ability to see this location list on a service’s website.

As users become more privacy-concerned, device manufacturers, app developers, and mobile service providers are introducing more transparency notifying users about how location data is obtained, used, and stored.

Remote location services and location sharing come with a privacy cost. You’re entrusting the companies you employ to secure your real-time data against theft and only disclose your location to third parties that have the legal authority to get it. Please use these services when and if the advantages outweigh the risks for you.

In this video (6m13s@2x), The Hated One goes over all the ways your smartphone is tracking your location.