The location data is one of the most precious of our mobile, at the least third – party companies who are always looking to know where we are, in principle provided for analysis and advertising. So do the operators, supposedly to improve the user experience. Be that as it may, there are times when it is possible to prevent the operator from being able to access the location of our mobile .
It is not always clear what access operators make to our location, as well as by different apps and Google. For that reason there are certain mobiles that allow us to modulate the access that third parties have to this information that is so important to us.
Why not share the location with the operator?
Almost two years ago you will remember that the INE, the National Institute of Statistics, announced that it was going to collect location data from millions of Spaniards in order to generate a map of their movement on designated dates. For this, it was logically necessary to trace the location of all these , in order to generate that map that would give us an idea of where we move, for example in events such as Easter, Christmas or summer holidays.
Something that logically sounds quite distant to us, taking into account that in many cases now that mobility is restricted. We then learned about some ways to prevent access to our location by operators , usually through the applications and client areas of these operators. But in recent times some manufacturers, few really, have introduced the possibility of expressly avoiding sharing this data with the operator.
For example, the access of the operators to our location for studies such as that of the INE could have been prevented with this functionality. Operators typically defend access to our location data to improve data analysis for subsequent metrics. Logically it is something that neither goes nor comes to us. Therefore we are sovereign to choose if we want that data to be shared or not. Not all manufacturers offer the possibility of preventing this data from being shared, in all of them we can find the activation or deactivation of sending the location to the emergency services (ELS) but not of doing it to the operator. If you have the possibility, it is a good way of being able to limit the data on the location that comes out of our phone, in such a way that the circulation of that information outside our phone is reduced to a minimum , and we have more control over it.
How to avoid it?
Well, as we say, this functionality is present only in some mobiles, not all, and it also depends on the operator we have, and if it is a free or operator mobile. In any case, we will only be able to find this function in the phone’s location settings , so that we will expressly prevent the operator from accessing our location data. In fact, the mobile will not allow access to them since it will not satisfy the requests for information about the location of the operators. Therefore, to avoid location sharing, you should do the following:
- Open the phone settings
- Click on “Location”
- Select “Advanced options” if any
- Enter “Access to operator location”
Once inside we only have the option to activate or deactivate this feature thanks to a sliding button. In the event that we disable it, we will prevent operators from making use of the location at will. Although it will not be prevented that they can continue to access it in cases of emergency , in which the phone will share them. Something logical, which would otherwise work against us at a time as difficult as that which may arise from an emergency situation.
Therefore we are not talking about the functionality of activating or not the location for emergency situations, but specific to prevent the operator from accessing our location data. However, it must be remembered that there are several ways that an operator can access our location, without the need to expressly access that data. Simply triangulating the position of the antennas to which we connect via Wifi can be obtained. But this way at least we will make it more difficult for the operators.