Can a Phone Be Tracked With Location Services Switched Off? You might have heard in the past about apps and your phone tracking you without consent. Many users would have thought that turning off their location services will relieve them of the tracking stress.
But truth be told, things are a little bit different even after you turn off the location services on your phone. 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.
Location Services Switched Off?
Turning off the built-in location service on your device does a good job of concealing your location. However, trackers can use other technologies and techniques to reveal your device’s location. Whether or not location services are turned on. But these other high-tech tracking methods are reserved for prime chasses.
Let’s start with the most accurate method that requires the authority to work. Cell carriers 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.
This 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.
Location Tracking via Public Wifi
The next tracking method is via public 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.
Spyware and malware
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 spam messages you click on Whatsapp have this ability.
Malware tracks the location of the device it’s installed on and disguises it as an update to improve the user’s internet speed. Malware can easily track 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.