It is universal that you want to know the whereabout of your loved ones with the aim of ensuring their safety and your peaceful mind. Thankfully, the GPS positioning technology has made location tracking no longer a realm in the scientific fiction. It can be very easy for us to track a cell phone through built-in location service and the third-party cell phone locator. However, there are moments when we are unwilling to reveal our location data and information. We opt to disable location service, so that the GPS can’t track phone location. Is it really the case? If you switch off the location service on your phone, is it impossible to track your cell phone?
Just read on the articles and find out the answer!
Can a cell phone still be tracked with disabled location service?
We are appreciating the joyfulness with an enabled location service, we can track the location of our loved ones. We can enjoy the customized ads presented to us when we have been to a new city. However, sometimes we find it anxious to reveal our location information for personal privacy concerns. Therefore, we tend to turn off the location service, which enables our location to be untraceable.
To be fair, turning off location service can actually do a good job in concealing our location information. However, there are still ways to track a cell phone even if you turn off the location service. Let’s dive into them!
Ways to track a cell phone without enabled location service:
Way 1：Cell Carrier Towers
Cell towers, also cited as cell sites, enable the surrounding areas to use wireless devices like cell phones and radios. Cell towers are basically everywhere. Whenever you use the cell phone, the smartphone emits radio frequency to reach the nearest cell tower’s antenna. Then, the cell carriers can track a cell phone through identifying the towers you are connected to measuring the time delay that a signal takes to make a round trip between the towers and your phone. The delay can be calculated and transformed into a specific distance or range, which can be interpreted as your approximate location. It is one of the workable ways to track phone location because your cell phone has a connection with the cell carrier towers.
Way 2: Public Wi-Fi service
It can be tempting to connect to public Wi-Fi network when you are working at a coffee shop. Every network server has its own IP address. When someone go surfing with its network, the server will send Internet request to Internet Service Provider, thus revealing the IP address. In other words, once you get connection to the public Wi-Fi network, others can track cell phone location, even with the location service turned off.
Way 3: Spyware and Malware
Your device will be accessible to malware, which means that malware might gain your personal information including your phone location even if you have switched off your GPS service. Some spywares or cell phone locator can also track phone location once they are installed on the mobile devices, and they will track the latest phone location and present it on the map once your phone gets access to network.
How can you avoid from phone location tracking?
We can conclude that there are still possibilities to track phone location even if you turn off the mobile phone. It is very important for you to know how to avoid phone from location tracking. Here we list you some feasible methods:
Method 1: Switch off Wi-Fi in public places
Generally speaking, your cell phone might prefer to connect to Wi-Fi network instead of your mobile data if your turn off Wi-Fi service. As we mentioned above, public Wi-Fi might lead to location exposure of your cell phone, making other be capable of tracking a cell phone. To eliminate the risk of posing you to online threats like location tracking, you’d better turn off Wi-Fi service on your cell phone when you go to public places.
Method 2: Turn off GPS service
Although it might be still possible to track phone location even if you switch off the location service, it might be better for you to turn off GPS service. Turning off GPS service can help you defend against certain kinds of location tracking.
Method 3: Go surfing with a reliable VPN
VPN stands for virtual private network, which enables you to transmit your data in an encrypted tunnel rebuilt by the VPN. Put it in another word, with the coverage of a reliable VPN, you can enjoy an extra layer of protection and keep your online surfing untraceable and anonymous. Your authentic IP location can be disguised by a specific IP address, thus making your location untraceable.
Method 4: Be careful while downloading and install an app
The malwares can track a cell phone even if you turn off the location service. Therefore, you should be more prudent while downloading the softwares. Only download and install the mobile application from official stores instead of from third-party sources like web pages.
It is also a great way for you to install an antivirus app to better defend your phone against from malicious apps, websites and files.
Method 5: Factory reset
A factory reset is the last method for you if you find that you device is compromised for it will erase all the data on your cell phone. You should make sure that you have backed up all your data on your phone before you choose to do so.
Final thoughts:
You should make it clear that it is possible to track a cell phone even if you turn off location service. The post also lists some workable solutions to the problems.
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