Staying in control of your digital footprint
Setting what your phone shares about your location
What you will be able to do In 6 minutes, you'll know how to choose which apps know your location, and how precisely.
Your phone often knows your location, because you allowed it one day, tapping "Allow" without thinking too much about it. A navigation app needs it to guide you. A flashlight or a game, much less so. Three levels exist everywhere: "always", "only while using the app", and "never". A finer setting, on top of that, tells apart precise location (the exact spot) from approximate location (the neighborhood, the city). We're going to open these settings together, app by app, on a screen we built ourselves. Nothing here is real: no setting on your phone changes.
Simulated screen
I practice
This screen was drawn by us. Nothing is sent, nothing is installed, and no real brand is shown.
The situationYou install a new app, and a question appears: allow access to your location?
The interactive exercise needs JavaScript. The written step by step, just below, says exactly the same thing.
The written step by step
The same steps, in words, to read or print. This sheet works even without the exercise.
Finding the right setting
Your turn Tap the setting that lists the apps allowed to know your location.
The "Location" entry opens the list of apps allowed to know your whereabouts, and their level of access.
Spotting the access that makes no sense
Your turn One app has access to your location that doesn't match any real need. Tap it.
The flashlight is set to "Always allow", even though it needs no access to your location to light up. That's the one to fix.
Removing an unjustified access
Your turn Choose the level of location access that suits a flashlight.
"Never allow" removes all access to location for this app, without changing anything about what it actually does.
Choosing the right precision
Your turn For the weather app, choose the level of precision that's enough.
"Approximate location" gives the neighborhood or the city, plenty for a weather app, without revealing the exact spot where you are.
Checking before closing
Your turn The settings are done. Tap the right way to finish.
There's nothing to confirm separately: each setting applies as soon as you choose it. Going back to the home screen is enough.
The sheet to keep
- Each app asks for its own access to location: setting it for one changes nothing for the others.
- Three levels exist everywhere: always, only while using the app, never.
- The right choice depends on what the app actually does, never on what it asks for.
- An app that never needs your location (flashlight, calculator, offline game) has no reason to have "always" access.
- Location can also be "approximate" (the neighborhood) rather than "precise" (the exact spot): for weather or local results, approximate is enough.
- These settings are found in the phone's settings, never in the app itself, which only asks for them.
The reflexes in this skill
I stop before I click
Urgency is the sign of a trap. A message that counts down the hours is trying to stop you from thinking. Putting your phone down for two minutes costs nothing, and it is almost always enough.
I go through the official door
The address typed in by hand, the app installed from the official store, the phone number printed on the back of your card. Never the link someone hands you, even when it looks right.
Two questions to check
Nothing is graded, and nothing is saved anywhere except in your own browser.
A flashlight app asks to know your location at all times. What do you do?
See the answer
I set its location access to "Never allow", it doesn't need it to light up
A flashlight turns on a light, it doesn't need your location, or to know when you're using it. Refusing this access changes nothing about how it works.
What's the difference between "precise location" and "approximate location"?
See the answer
Precise gives the exact spot, approximate gives a wider area like the neighborhood
Precise location relies on GPS and gives an exact point. Approximate gives a wider area, enough for weather or local results, for example.
I've done it
Check this box once you can do this skill on your own.
Your progress stays in your own browser.