If you use Google’s apps on your iPhone or Android phone, it’s a good possibility you’re being tracked. And turning off your location history in your Google account doesn’t mean you’re in the clear.
To completely shut down Google’s ability to log your location, here’s what you can do:
1. Open Google.com on your desktop or mobile browser, and log into your Google account by using the button in the top right corner.
2. Click your user icon in the top right corner and select Manage your Google account.
3. Click Privacy & personalization.
4. Click Things you’ve done and places you’ve been.
5. Click Location history inside the History settings box. This opens Activity Controls.
6. Beneath Location History, click the button on the right that reads Turn off. This opens a pop-up window.
7. Scroll to the bottom of this window and click Pause.
Turning off location history only removes where you’ve been from the Google Maps Timeline feature, which logs your location with certain data at a specific time.
Google’s support page on the matter says that even when turned off, “some location data may continue to be saved in other settings,” like your web and app activity.
Google says that it uses this data to make features more personalized and helpful, and that this information is never shared with third parties or advertisers.