The thought of someone tracking your every move is scary, whether it's your employer, government, or even a stalker.

All smartphones on the market today come with built-in location services that could be used to reveal location data. But what if you don't want to share your location data with anyone? If you disable location services on your phone, is it still possible for it to be tracked?

Read on to find out whether your phone can be tracked after you disable location services.

Can Your Phone Be Tracked If Location Services Are Off?

The question "If location services are off, can I be tracked?" is a technical one to answer. After all, turning off location services on your phone is supposed to make it untraceable. But this is not always the case, as there are other ways that your device can still be tracked. So, can a phone be tracked when location services are turned off?

To be fair, turning off the built-in location service on your device does a good job of concealing your location. And if asked should location services be on or off? The best answer for privacy is "off." However, trackers can use other technologies and techniques to reveal your device location, whether or not location services are turned on.

5 Ways Your Phone Can Be Tracked Without GPS

LG Phones

Turning off location services on your device works well to keep your device location hidden, but only to an extent. There are other technologies and techniques that can be used to track your phone, even with location services turned off. Let’s talk about some of them below.

1. Cell Carrier Towers

Cell carrier towers are everywhere and can track your phone’s location by identifying the towers you’re connected to and measuring the time delay that a signal takes to make a round trip between the towers and your phone. The delay is then calculated and converted into a specific distance or range, which returns a fairly accurate phone location.

This works very well because your phone (when on) stays in constant connection with nearby cell towers.

2. Public Wi-Fi Networks

Free Wi-Fi networks are all the rage these days. They’re everywhere, and it can be tempting to connect to one when you have a slow connection. But here’s the thing: public Wi-Fi networks are another way your device’s location can be tracked, even with location services turned off.

Most free Wi-Fi providers collect your device’s media access control (MAC) address in exchange for the connection. Providers can use your phone’s MAC address to keep logs of the places you visit whenever you connect with any hotspot from the same provider.

3. StingRays

StingRays (also known as cell-site simulators) function a lot like cell towers, except their only use is to track your phone instead of providing you with a real network connection.

A StingRay simulates a cell tower to get nearby mobile devices to connect to it. StingRays are mostly used by law enforcement to track devices in a given area. They broadcast stronger signals than cell towers, which forces mobile phones to disconnect from legitimate cell towers and connect and ping them instead.

stingray
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Just like with legitimate cell towers, your phone’s location can then be deduced by measuring and converting the time it takes for the signal to make a round trip between your phone and the StingRay.

4. Bluetooth Tracking

Bluetooth can also be used to track your phone's location. Bluetooth tracking works by detecting and recording the unique MAC address of your device's Bluetooth radio. Retailers and advertisers, for example, have started using Bluetooth beacons in their stores or public spaces to track customer behavior and deliver targeted advertisements.

These beacons can detect nearby Bluetooth-enabled devices, including smartphones, and collect data on their presence and movement within the area.

5. Spyware and Malware

Pre-installed malware can also be used to track your device even when your GPS is turned off. The most common way this malware gains access to your device is through a Trojan horse, accessing your system through a backdoor.

The Skygofree malware tracks the location of the device it’s installed on and disguises it as an update to improve the user’s internet speed.

Once installed, Skygofree tracks the location of the device it’s installed on, turns on audio recording, controls Wi-Fi networks as well as manages apps like Facebook Messenger, Skype, Viber, and WhatsApp.

How to Stop Your Phone From Being Tracked

There are many reasons why you may want to stop your phone from being tracked. It could be for privacy and sometimes even for security reasons.

Thus, having answered the "Can you track a phone if the location is off?" question, it's important to know how you can protect your device from being tracked.

phone with padlock
Image Credit: maxkabakov/Depositphotos | VectorStory/Depositphotos

1. Turn Off Wi-Fi In Public Places

Most smartphones generally have a connection preference for Wi-Fi networks. You may have experienced a time when your device automatically switched from using your mobile data to using an available Wi-Fi network. This happens rather often if your Wi-Fi is always on.

Disabling your phone’s Wi-Fi connection when in public places eliminates the risk of your device automatically connecting to a Wi-Fi network that collects location data.

2. Turn Off GPS

There are ways your device could still be tracked even after turning off location services, but not turning it off is worse. Turning off location services on your phone provides a layer of security against the most common location trackers.

3. Browse Using a VPN

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) enables you to browse the internet anonymously by creating a private network from a public internet connection. When you use a VPN while browsing, it encrypts your internet data, hiding your IP address and physical location. This way, you're covered even if you visit a site that collects visitor location data.

4. Turn Off Bluetooth When Not in Use

Bluetooth is a great technology for short-range wireless communication. However, it can also serve as a phone location tracker. Airtags already use Bluetooth technology to find devices, so it's easy to see how the technology can be abused. To prevent Bluetooth tracking, you should disable Bluetooth when you are not using it.

5. Don't Share Your Location on Social Media

One common way people unknowingly expose their location and movements is by sharing their whereabouts on social media platforms. Many social media apps allow you to tag your location in posts, check-ins, or geotags, which can reveal your exact coordinates or at least give clues about your current location. If you suspect that your device is being tracked, avoid sharing your location on social media altogether

6. Mind Your Download Sites

Only install apps from official stores. There are other ways malware could be distributed, but disabling the installation of apps from third-party sources and minding your download sites is the best way to keep them out.

You can also install an antivirus to better secure your device from malicious apps and files, suspicious websites, and dangerous links.

7. Scrutinize App Permissions

All apps require certain permissions to function properly. But you should be wary of dubious permission requests. When an app that doesn’t require your location data to function requests location permission, that’s a sign that the app may be doing more than it’s supposed to.

Uninstall any app that requests more permissions than you think is reasonable. You can find replacements on the app store if you absolutely need to use the function.

8. Keep Your Device's Software Up-To-Date

One of the best ways to keep your device secure is by regularly updating your software. Operating system updates usually include security patches that fix vulnerabilities in the code. So, if a new exploit is found, you’re less likely to be affected if your software is up-to-date.

9. Factory Reset

A factory reset is a last resort if you think your device has been compromised. Doing so will delete all the data on your phone, so be sure to back up everything before you proceed. If you don't already know how to reset your Android or iOS device, our guides on how to reset an iOS or Android device will help you.

Keep in mind that a factory reset will only work if the malicious software is not actively running in the background or if it’s not installed on your device as system software.

How to Stop Your Cell Carrier From Tracking Your Phone’s Location

You’ve probably already noticed that none of the tips shared above can protect your phone from being tracked by your service provider. There's an explanation for that.

It is because your phone needs to be in constant communication with nearby cell towers to function properly. The only way to stop your device from being tracked by your cell carrier is by switching it off—and removing the battery.

This is the only way you can be guaranteed that your device is not being tracked. Anyone trying to track your device after it’s been switched off will only be able to trace it to the location it was before it was switched off. Which, ideally, should not be your home address.