6 Phone Settings You Must Turn Off to Stop Strangers From Tracking You
6 Phone Settings You Must Turn Off to Stop Strangers From Tracking You
Publish Date: 2026-04-01 18:25:00
Source Domain: www.savingadvice.com
Image Source: Pexels
Your phone knows where you are, what you search, who you talk to, and sometimes, it shares more than you realize. Many of the default phone privacy settings are designed for convenience, not security. That means apps, advertisers, and even strangers could potentially track your location or behavior if you don’t adjust them.
In fact, experts warn that apps can continue accessing location data in the background unless you manually restrict permissions. However, what is truly surprising is that most people never change these settings after they buy their phones. Believe it or not, it’s incredibly easy, and it could protect your privacy. Here are six phone settings you should turn off if your privacy matters to you.
1. Location Services (Or Leaving It Always On)
Location Services is one of the biggest privacy risks on any smartphone. When enabled broadly, it allows apps to track your movements in real time. Both iPhone and Android let you turn this off completely or limit access to specific apps.
It is recommended to set location access to “While Using the App” instead of “Always.” Some apps don’t need your location at all, but still request it. So, use your own discretion. Your recipe app likely doesn’t need to know where you are. It’s just feeding more data to the company. Changing this setting can help you keep a little more of your privacy.
2. “Allow Apps to Request to Track” (Ad Tracking)
Ad tracking is how apps follow your behavior across websites and other apps. This data is often used to build detailed profiles about you. On iPhones, you can disable this by turning off “Allow Apps to Request to Track.” Android users can limit this through ad personalization settings. Turning this off doesn’t eliminate ads, but it stops personalized tracking, which is important to many people.
3. Precise Location Sharing
Even if you allow location access, there’s another layer most people miss. In some cases, your device has access to…
