How to Stop Location Tracking and Stalking on an iPhone

Review and Adjust Location Services for Apps

Many apps request access to your location, and it's wise to regularly review and adjust these permissions to ensure only necessary apps have access.

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services.
Scroll through the list of apps and tap on each one individually.
Choose from Never, Ask Next Time or When I Share, or While Using the App.
For apps that don't need your precise location, consider turning off Precise Location.

Tip

Regularly reviewing app permissions helps maintain your privacy and can also save battery life.

Manage Significant Locations and System Services

Your iPhone tracks frequently visited locations to provide personalised services. You can review and clear this data, and disable specific system-level location features.

Navigate to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services.
Scroll down and tap System Services.
Tap Significant Locations. You may need to authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.
Tap Clear History to remove past significant locations, then toggle Significant Locations off.
Review other System Services like Location-Based Alerts and iPhone Analytics, and disable any you don't need.

Important

Disabling Significant Locations may affect the accuracy of some personalised features, such as calendar event suggestions for locations.

Check and Disable Find My Sharing

The Find My app allows you to share your location with family and friends. It's crucial to ensure you're only sharing with trusted individuals and to stop sharing if you suspect misuse.

Open the Find My app.
Tap the People tab at the bottom of the screen.
Review the list of people you are sharing your location with.
To stop sharing with someone, tap their name and then tap Stop Sharing My Location.
If you are concerned about someone else tracking you, you can also consider turning off Share My Location within the Find My app's 'Me' tab.

Good to know

If you stop sharing your location, the other person will not be notified, but you will no longer see their location either if they were sharing with you.

Perform a Safety Check

iOS has a built-in Safety Check feature designed to help you quickly review and reset access to your information, including location data, for people and apps.

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Safety Check.
You will see two options: Emergency Reset and Manage Sharing & Access.
For a quick review and to stop sharing with specific people and apps, choose Manage Sharing & Access.
Follow the on-screen prompts to review people you are sharing with and apps that have access to your information.
If you need to immediately revoke all sharing with people and apps, and review your device security, select Emergency Reset. This is a more drastic step.

Important

Using Emergency Reset will immediately stop sharing your location with all people and apps, and reset privacy permissions for all apps. Only use this if you feel your safety is at risk.

Tags:

Privacy

Location & Tracking

Mobile Device Security

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Written by

Jordan Dickson

Founder, CyberSecurityGuides

Founder of CyberSecurityGuides, writing practical, jargon-free guides that help everyday people recover from and protect against online attacks.

Reviewed by CSG Security Engineers