On different occasions like when you are on travel, out of home, shifting your home to a new location, booking a taxi, telling nearby landmarks, reporting to your boss or letting your loved ones know your current location, sharing your location becomes vital. But before sharing your current location, leaving strangers continuously monitoring your location or providing someone access to your location history, you must learn what are all the risk factors associated with it. This guide will get you covered with all the required information to know about secure location sharing, different applications used for this purpose, the best application and how to prevent being tracked continuously or unnecessarily.
From security to social convenience, location sharing is very much important occasionally or in everyday life. For example, if your kid is out of home and went to attend a school conference, getting to know your kid's location makes you feel well informed of your kid's location from time to time. If you are traveling and exploring a new place, the current location and its surrounding details are important to plan your next move or book your restaurant, hotel, cab, bus, train and flight. In case of family events, parties, social gatherings or community events, sharing the location makes it hassle free to reach the exact location hassle free. When it comes to sales and marketing, location reporting is vital to let your boss know your current location or maintaining location history for future reference. In case of altitude measurement, it may be required to check the current elevation of location or elevation of any point on earth surface.
Many times we never mind sharing our current location but you must understand that you are sharing the most important personal information by sharing your location or allowing someone or apps to continuously track your location. If you are doing it so often, it may land you in trouble someday. Therefore, you must always be mindful of three factors TO WHOM, HOW LONG and THROUGH WHICH APP you are sharing your current location to someone else for safety reasons. There are many apps and websites out there, so choosing the right one which is not tracking your location unnecessarily or using the location reporting app in the best way possible is the crucial thing. To share your location securely, the first thing is you must choose your application or website wisely. Among many apps, Google Maps, WhatsApp Location and What My Location are some of the best choices to share your location securely.
Among these three choices, What My Location is the best choice because it is completely built on the idea of how to check (show me a map of where I am) or share your current location without being tracked continuously or in the background. With this app you can simply check or share your current location securely. To check your current location, allow the location permission for whatmylocation.com and refer your location details on maps. To share your location securely, copy the URL at the top of the page and share the URL to the intended person to know about your current location.
Location information is one of the most important personal information. You must understand that you are sharing one of the most important personal information to someone else by sharing your current location. Many times we ought to share our current location to someone else for personal or business reasons. Due to our busy schedules or lethargy we never mind how long we are allowing different apps to track our location or to whom we are sharing the location in the group events. TO WHOM, HOW LONG and THROUGH WHICH APP are the 3 important factors that you must always mindful while you are sharing your current location. It's always recommended to avoid the common mistake that we make while sharing your current location. The common mistakes which include but are not limited to the following.
Whether it is business or personal, getting to know the current location and its surrounding places or sharing your current location is more important, but we must always ensure that the location is not being shared unnecessarily for safety reasons. Refer the below location sharing safety notes to avoid or prevent someone tracking your location beyond the requirement or unnecessarily.
1. Check your location permission on your device to check if you are being tracked through location permission by any installed Apps. If any apps which are unnecessarily being allowed to access your location, set the control as ASK EVERY TIME, WHILE USING or DON'T ALLOW. Refer the appropriate information section based on your device to identify which apps are being allowed or not allowed to access your current location:
For Android device,
go to Settings > Privacy Protection > Location
For Apple iPhone or iPad,
go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services
For Apple Mac or MacBook,
click on apple icon > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Location Services
For Windows PC,
click on Windows icon > Settings > Privacy > Location
Many times we allow the location permission for Websites and Apps but forget to stop sharing location permission once our requirement is completed. If any App that is being allowed to access your current location mistakenly, change the setting to BLOCK or DENY. It is always recommended to set the control as ASK rather than WHILE USING for websites, so that the App prompts you every time for location permission when you are accessing the website. You may set it as ALLOW for only trusted Apps to access the current location of your device.
2. Check your location permission for websites to check if you are being tracked by any websites for which you have already provided the location permission.
For Chrome Browser on Windows PC
Open Chrome Browser, press Alt + F, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Location and check the list of websites that are allowed or not allowed to access your current location.
For Microsoft Edge Browser on Windows PC
Open Microsoft Edge Browser, press Alt + F, go to Settings > Cookies and site permissions > Location (under Site permissions) and check the list of websites that are allowed or not allowed to access your current location.
For Firefox Browser on Windows PC
Open Firefox browser, Tools > Setting > Privacy and security > Permissions > Location (Settings...) and check the list of websites that are allowed or not allowed to access your current location.
For Safari Browser for Mac or MacBook,
Open Safari Browser, click on Safari menu which display at the top left corner (adjacent to the File menu) of the browser window, and then go to Preferences > Websites > Location displays the list of websites that are allowed or not allowed to access your location. You can change the location permission setting between ASK, ALLOW and DENY.
For Chrome Browser on Mac or MacBook,
Open Chrome Browser, click on Chrome menu which display at the top left corner (adjacent to the File menu) of the browser window, and then go to Preferences > Privacy and security > Site settings > Location and check the list of websites that are allowed or not allowed to access your current location.
For Firefox Browser on Mac or MacBook,
Open Firefox Browser, click on Firefox menu which display at the top left corner (adjacent to the File menu) of the browser window, and then go to Preferences > Privacy and security > Permissions > Location (Settings...) and check the list of websites that are allowed or not allowed to access your current location.
If any websites that are being allowed mistakenly, change the setting to BLOCK. It is always recommended to set the control as ASK or ASK BEFORE ACCESSING for websites, so that the browser prompts you every time for location permission when you are accessing the website. You may set it as ALLOW for trusted websites to access the current location of your device.
Since location sharing is important but when you do it without taking safety measures, it may become vulnerable in any situation. So you must be mindful about 3 factors such as TO WHOM, HOW LONG and THROUGH WHICH APP you are sharing your current location. Likewise, allowing access to your current location for any website or app, you must provide the proper attention to choose from the available options such as ALLOW ALWAYS, ALLOW ONLY WHILE USING, ASK EVERY TIME, or DON'T ALLOW based on your requirements. By being mindful and choosing the right option for location sharing you can avoid or reduce the risky consequences.