This is one of the few recommendations in the series where the work is done once and produces an immediate, verifiable effect.
No habits need changing and nothing needs learning to recognise. What is needed is opening three lists and shortening them.
It puts into practice the recommendation turning off Bluetooth and location.
Part 1 — Location permissions
It is the part that counts most, and the one to start from.
Where they are
On Android: Settings → Location → App location permissions. You find the apps grouped by level of access: allowed all the time, allowed only while in use, ask every time, not allowed.
On iPhone and iPad: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services. You see the complete list with each app’s setting.
Both systems also show which apps used location recently, often with a time. It is the most useful information on the screen.
The levels, and which to choose
| Level | What it means | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Always | The app has access even when you are not using it | Only for navigation, weather with alerts, safety |
| While using the app | Access only while the app is open | The correct default choice |
| Ask every time | A request at each use | For apps you rarely use |
| Never | No access | For everything with no functional reason |
The rule of thumb: assume “while using the app” is enough, and grant “always” only when the app stops working without it.
Very few apps genuinely need it: the ones that have to alert you about something tied to a place while they are closed.
Precision
Recent systems distinguish between precise and approximate location. The second indicates an area of a few kilometres instead of a point.
For very many apps it is enough: weather, local news, finding nearby businesses, regional content. Precise location is only needed by apps that have to guide you somewhere.
It is one of the settings with the best ratio of benefit to inconvenience, and almost nobody uses it.
How to decide, app by app
One question: would this app make sense without knowing where I am?
| Category | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Maps and navigation | Yes, precise, while using the app |
| Weather | Approximate is enough |
| Transport and mobility | Precise, while using the app |
| Social networks | Never, unless you want to geotag content |
| Camera | Consider it: it adds the location to photos |
| Shopping and delivery | While using the app |
| Games | Almost always: never |
| Utilities (torch, calculator, notes) | Never: there is no functional reason |
| Banking | While using the app: it helps the anti-fraud checks |
The camera row deserves a note: photos taken with location on contain the coordinates of the place. It is convenient for finding them again, and it should be kept in mind when sharing images outside your own circle.
Part 2 — The history already accumulated
Reducing the permissions stops future collection. The existing record is another matter.
Where to look. In the account associated with the device there is typically a section devoted to activity, with an entry for location history. Many services show it on a map you can browse by date.
What you can do:
- look at it, which is instructive in itself: it makes plain how detailed it is;
- delete it, entirely or for specific periods;
- turn off future collection, with a switch;
- set automatic deletion after three, eighteen or thirty-six months, where available.
The last option is the most balanced for anybody who finds the feature useful: you keep the recent benefit without accumulating a record spanning years.
Part 3 — Sharing with other people
It is the part that holds the most surprises, because these settings get turned on once and nobody revisits them.
Where to look: in map apps, in messaging apps, in your account’s services, and in apps dedicated to family sharing.
What to check:
- who can see your location right now;
- how long that sharing has been on;
- whether it is still current: sharing set up for a trip two years ago is probably no longer needed;
- whether it is mutual, when it should be.
A note on family sharing: it is useful and legitimate. It is worth talking about again when circumstances change, though — the children’s age, the family situation — instead of leaving it on out of inertia.
Part 4 — Bluetooth
Simpler, and with less to decide.
Switch it off when you are not using connected devices. If you have no headphones, watch, car or anything else in use, it is not needed.
Careful with the quick control panel. On some systems, tapping the Bluetooth icon in the pull-down panel does not really switch it off: it disconnects it from the devices but leaves it active for system services, and it turns itself back on the next day. To switch it off properly you have to go through the settings.
Review the paired devices. The list accumulates over time: headphones you sold, rental cars, acquaintances’ speakers. Remove the ones you no longer use.
Turn off permanent discoverability, where it exists as a separate setting: it is only needed while pairing a new device.
It deserves a section because it is counter-intuitive and almost nobody knows about it.
Many systems keep scanning for Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth devices even after you have switched them off, to improve the precision of location services.
On Android: Settings → Location → Location services → Wi-Fi scanning / Bluetooth scanning.
On iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → System Services, where you find several system entries that can be toggled individually.
Turning them off reduces the device’s observability, at a small cost in location precision when you need it.
The other sources to sort out
With the permissions reduced, some settings concerning location remain, and they sit elsewhere.
Photos. In the camera settings there is an entry for whether to include the location in shots. If you would rather not have it, turn it off; if it is useful for finding photos again, keep it and remember it travels with the image when you share it.
Many galleries also allow the location to be removed at the moment of sharing, keeping it in your personal archive: it is the best compromise.
Fitness apps. Look for the setting that obscures a radius around an address — home, work. It is a feature almost all of them offer and almost nobody turns on, and it solves the problem of a route always starting from the same point.
Wearables. Watches and bands have an app and an account of their own, with permissions separate from the phone’s. They should be reviewed in the same way.
Voice assistants and home devices. Their account typically holds a configured address and a history of requests. It is worth a one-off check.
A connected car. If the vehicle is recent, the on-board system has settings about sharing data with the manufacturer. They are rarely looked at and often adjustable.
The browser. Sites can ask for location too. In the browser’s settings there is a list of authorised sites: it is worth looking at, because they accumulate there as well.
None of these entries is urgent. They are the second pass, to do once the first is complete.
A ten-minute plan
Minutes 1-5 — Location permissions. Scroll the list and reduce everything on “always” without a reason. Turn on approximate where it suffices.
Minutes 6-7 — The sharing. Check who sees your location, across every app.
Minutes 8-9 — The history. Look at it, and set automatic deletion.
Minute 10 — Bluetooth. Remove the paired devices you do not use, and turn off network scanning with the radios off.
Once that is done, there is no need to come back to it except every few months, after installing new apps.
The most frequent objections
“If I remove the permission, the app will stop working.” Some will, and in that case you will find out at once and can grant it again. Most work perfectly well with “while using the app” or with approximate location. Trying costs nothing and is reversible in two taps.
“Reviewing every app is too much work.” You do not have to review them all. Look only at the ones on “always”: there are few, and they are the ones that count.
“They already have the data anyway.” True for the past, false for the future. Revoking a permission stops the collection from that moment — it is one of the few actions in this series with an immediate and certain effect.
“If I turn location off I will not find my phone again.” Careful not to confuse things: the device-finding service is a system function, separate from the apps’ permissions. Reducing the apps’ permissions does not turn it off.
“I need location for emergencies.” Emergency calls transmit the location regardless of the settings, precisely for that reason. It is not a function you lose.
“I need Bluetooth all day for my watch.” Then keep it on: the recommendation concerns the time it is not needed, not legitimate use. In that case concentrate on the location permissions, which are the more relevant part.
How to keep it up over time
The trouble with this recommendation is not doing it: it is that the permissions accumulate again.
Every new app asks for at least one, and quite a few get installed in a year. Without a moment of review, the list goes back to how it was.
Three ways not to have to do it all again.
Decide at the moment of the request. It is the most effective approach: when an app asks for location at first launch, pause for two seconds and ask whether it makes sense. If the answer is no, “don’t allow” — and if something then does not work, you grant it at that point.
Tie the review to something you already do. The change of season, a subscription renewal, the annual system update. A review that depends on remembering does not survive.
Make use of automatic expiry. Some systems revoke the permissions of apps not used for months by themselves. Check it is on: it does the maintenance for you.
One last practical note. When you uninstall an app, its permissions disappear with it — but the data it already collected stays where it ended up. Uninstalling does not delete. If an app collected a lot and you want the data removed, the route is the request the data protection rules provide for, not uninstalling.
How this connects to the Cyber Welfare Framework
| Pillar | What this content contributes |
|---|---|
| Skills | Managing permission levels, precision and history |
| Secure Behaviour | Weighing requests instead of accepting them out of habit |
| Awareness | Knowing that some functions stay active even when switched off |
Reference level: FL2 — Beginner. The step to FL3 comes when the permissions are reviewed across every device and the review becomes periodic.
Summary
- “While using the app” is the correct default; “always” is the exception.
- Approximate location is enough for far more apps than people think.
- Reducing permissions does not delete the record: that has to be handled separately.
- Many systems scan for networks even with the radios off: it is a separate setting.
One thing to do today. Open the list of location permissions and count how many apps are on “always”. If it is more than two, you have found ten minutes well spent.
Related content
- Turning off Bluetooth and location — the recommendation this guide comes from
- How Bluetooth and location work — why these permission levels exist
- Signs of unwanted tracking — what to notice after configuring
- Consequences of location tracking — why it is worth doing
Related resources
Short reads from the Resources section, for anyone who wants to stop on a single aspect:
Start with the first step: the Cyber Welfare Programme guides you free of charge, one recommendation at a time.
