How to Stop Your iPhone from Tracking Your Frequent Locations

You probably know that your iPhone (and iPad) will track your location, which might be super useful for things like marking wherever a photo was taken or letting friends and family know wherever you’re. however you’ll not know that, by default, iOS keeps track of locations you visit often in order that it will create better local suggestions and provides you a additional today view in your Notification Center.

The trouble is that anyone with access to your phone will simply see your frequent locations, beside the precise dates and times you were there and even a handy map. If you’d rather iOS not track your frequent locations, it’s straightforward enough to turn it off, if you recognize wherever to look.

1. Launch the Settings app from your home screen → Tap on Privacy.

2. The very first option is “Location Services“, tap on it.

3. Now scroll all the way to bottom and tap on “System Services“.

4. You get the list of system services. From the list, tap on “Frequent Locations“.

5. Toggle OFF “Frequent Locations“.

And that’s all you have to do to ensure a little more privacy while using your phone. Disabling the feature and clearing your location history is well worth your time.

That being said, many of these services can do without location tracking, such as Wi-Fi Calling, Motion Calibration & Fitness, Compass Calibration and more.

Slide all or some of the following toggles to the OFF position:

Cell Network Search—Apple uses this to measure cellular reception.
Compass Calibration—The stock Compass app will refresh slower.
HomeKit—If you’re not using any HomeKit devices, disable this.
Location-Based Alerts—Disable if you don’t use location-based alerts in Reminders.
Location-Based iAds—Ads in apps won’t be tailored to your location.
Motion Calibration & Distance—Disable if you don’t use fitness and activity apps.
Safari & Spotlight Suggestions—Web suggestions won’t be location-specific.
Setting Time Zone—Definitely disable unless you travel time zones often.
Share My Location—Disables location tracking for Messages and Find My Friends.
Wi-Fi Calling—Turn off if you don’t use Wi-Fi Calling.
Wi-Fi Networking—Disabling this stops Apple from collecting data on nearby Wi-Fi networks.

Disable location for apps

Make a habit of venturing into Settings → Privacy → Location Services on a regular basis, especially after installing apps that have requested your location. iOS makes it easy to configure location services for individual applications there. You would typically choose from the following options:

Never: This feature makes it so the application in question can never access your location for any reason at all.
While Using: This feature makes it so the application in question can only ever access your location when it’s open and in the foreground.
Always: This feature makes it so the application in question will always have access to your location whenever it wants to, whether the application is open in the background or not.

It’s a good idea to ensure that apps use “While Using” setting rather than “Always” in order to avoid background location tracking without your knowledge.

If you don’t need location access in some of your favorite apps, set them to “Never”. If I were you, I’d also turn on the the iOS status bar icon so that I can tell when my location is being retrieved or accessed.

if you disable Location Services, you’ll be rewarded with a longer battery life and privacy.