Whether you have an Android smartphone or an iPhone, you must have downloaded an app that requires you to access your jobs. But does a note-taking app or mobile game really need to locate you to the nearest meter? Do not. So, here’s how to revoke an Android or iOS app’s access to your precise location.
I’m not an iOS expert, but on Android we can distinguish between two types of geolocations used by apps. “Coarse Location” can locate your geographic location to within about 3 square kilometers, and “Fine Location” can pinpoint your precise location to within a few meters (50 meters and below). The difference is in the resources available to the application, and “fine-location” access is necessarily more intrusive than “coarse-location” access.
On Android 12 and iOS 16, when an app requests access to your location, you can now grant it, but limit the permission to your approximate location.
How to revoke access to your precise location on your Android smartphone
On Android, you can manage the permissions granted to your app through the famous Privacy Dashboard:
- go to set up then in Place
- Select the app of your choice and click on it
- Close marked with Use precise location
Here’s how to revoke access to your precise location on Android 12 / © kwgeek
How to Revoke Access to Your Precise Location on iPhone
On iOS, the process is more or less the same. Like Android’s Privacy Dashboard, you can see which apps are accessing your location through the Location Services menu in the Privacy menu.
- go to set up Then scroll down to see your list of apps
- Select the app of your choice and click on it
- press Location
- off switch exact location
Here’s how to revoke access to your precise location on iOS 16 / © kwgeek
This quick tutorial does just that to revoke an app’s access to your precise location. Did this tip help you? Besides navigation apps like Google Maps or Plans, which apps do you allow access to your precise location?