Exposing your geolocation information publicly can lead to increased personal and business risk. This is particularly important to note in the wake of Google's location tracking, even if you explicitly told them not to. It is remarkable how freely we tell the world one of the most important things about ourselves: where we are. The everyday use of geotagging and geolocation data has enabled many wonderful things, but other things it has enabled are not so pleasant. From photos of recognizable places posted on social networks, to location check-in apps like Swarm, Yelp!, or any other social media platform, we leave a vivid online trail of our comings and goings. We often provide our location information to others without even realizing it, for example, when we post photos with embedded geolocation data, use social media services or certain mobile apps with geolocation features turned on, or visit certain websites, we may be accidently broadcasting our location to the world.
What Are the Risks?
There are two major risks — and several smaller ones — associated with publicly sharing your geolocation. First, when others know exactly where you are, you can be approached, interrupted, detained, or placed in danger. And if they know where you are, they also know where you are not, which can put your family, home, and belongings at risk. The same applies to your friends and colleagues. How would you feel if strangers could track your loved ones? With online tools, discovering someone’s address is simple, and real estate sites make it easy for anyone to view detailed photos of your home and neighborhood. Combined with clues like ZIP codes and job titles, criminals can even estimate your income or net worth, making you a more appealing target if they also know where you live.
There are also smaller but meaningful risks tied to what others can infer from your location. If someone notices you somewhere unexpected, they may draw conclusions about your actions, your work, or even your loyalties. Consider how much your phone records can reveal about your movements—then imagine that information multiplied many times over when your geolocation is shared publicly.
Where Are These Risks Coming From?
The most obvious way we reveal our location is through social media posts and uploaded photos. Checking in with apps like Foursquare explicitly broadcasts where you are, while marking yourself as “attending” an event on Facebook tells people where you’ll be and when. Even something as simple as posting a photo of a steak at the Original Morton’s lets others know you’re at 1050 N. State St. in downtown Chicago. And beyond what you intentionally share, your photos may also contain embedded metadata — such as coordinates like 41.901670, -87.628810 — that reveal your exact location. In short, just by examining a photo, others can learn where you are.
Your mobile device also constantly tracks your location, estimating it through cell towers and triangulation and pinpointing it precisely when GPS is enabled. You notice this every time you open a mapping app and see the map centered on your real‑time position. Even your web browser can reveal where you are, using wireless network information and IP addresses to provide approximate location data to websites and online services.
How Do They Know Where You Are?
- Observing the locations and activities you post in real time.
- Examining pictures with embedded location data.
- Triangulating your position when your GPS is active.
- Stealing your location from the mapping applications you use.
- Intercepting browser and IP data as your use your computer on wireless and local networks.
Mobile apps can introduce unique geolocation risks. While it’s clear that navigation apps need your location to function, many other apps—including games and simple puzzle apps—also request access to your geolocation. Unlike social media posts or photos, which you intentionally create and share, mobile apps can run quietly in the background, continually sending information to their publishers. When you install an app, you’ll see a list of permissions it requests, and geolocation data is often one of them, along with access to your contacts and the network. Before tapping “okay,” it’s worth pausing to review these permissions and asking yourself two key questions: Do I trust this publisher? And am I comfortable with them having information about me and my movements?
In many cases, you can still download the app while limiting what it can access. After installation, open your device’s settings and review which apps have permission to use your location. For most apps, restricting access to “only while using the app” can significantly improve your geolocation privacy—and as a bonus, it may help extend your battery life.
How Can You Minimize Your Exposure to Geolocation Risk?
- Be careful about who has access to your location.
- Turn off the geo-tagging function on your cameras (phone and traditional cameras)
- Limit social network access to your posts to just your closest friends
- Don't announce your location or your travel plans in posts
- Delay upload of travel photos
- Be wary of cross-network posting (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/LinkedIn/other)
- Review your installed mobile apps for geolocation access - turn off geolocation access whenever you can.
We've come a long way from a world where we deceived our parents with plausible or vague explanations of where we will be (i.e.: Brooks says, “I'm at Sam's"; Sam says,"I'm at Brooks'"). Thanks to GPS, mobile devices and web browsers, it's almost impossible to be invisible. But, by educating yourself on the risks of sharing your geolocation data, you can take simple steps to protect yourself and your family from exposure to those risks that arise from third parties knowing your location.