While there is no doubt that cell phones and the various technologies surrounding it have indeed galloped, it also has its own share of problems, challenges and dangers. While children could make wrong and dangerous use of mobile phones, adults also may not be completely safe from certain dangers associated with mobile phones in general and smart phones in particular.

Today’s technology allows any third person to make use of a facility known as a phone tracker. This is a new location technology and cell phones. It can be helpful whenever you are looking for a particular address or location. For example, you could be driving on the highways and may be running short on gasoline. In such cases, you could make use of the location tracking technology. This can help you to identify the nearest gas station where you can refill your car and move on. If you are moving from one city to another covering hundreds of miles, this technology could also come in very handy and useful.

However, on the flip side the phone locator could also lead to various other problems of privacy and your mobile phone could be tracked by some undesirable purposes. Hence, it is quite obvious that you would be keen to get out of this messy situation because it amounts to a complete infringement on your privacy. Let us try and find out how phone trackers get behind you using the technology available at their disposal.

Find out the Technology they are using

The most common technology is the use of wireless signals. This technology is used to triangulate your position and this is done between your actual location and the cell towers. GPS radio is another technology that is commonly used on your phone. This is done to pinpoint your exact location. Wi-Fi hotspot is another method that is used by many. When this technology is used to approximately tell you your current mobile phone location. Hence, if you feel that you are being tracked, the simplest way is to disable the above three technologies that may be working behind the scenes on your mobile phone. This is quite effective and could help you take the monkey off your back and be in a position to respect your privacy.

Airplane Mode

You could also turn off the Wi-Fi and cellular radios on your phone. The simplest way is to make sure that you turn on the airplane mode on your mobile phone. When the airplane mode is turned on it closes your cell radios and also the Wi-Fi radio that is installed by default in your phone. When you are done with this, you can be sure that no one can connect to your network. Yes, you will have a problem because you will not be able to make and receive calls. Further, you will not be able to use your social media platforms nor can you send and receive messages. But it certainly can be an effective way to ensure that the tracker and stalker becomes confused and loses track of you.

Ensure that your GPS Radio is disabled

 

Disabling your GPS radio is another effective way to ensure that you stay protected from phone trackers and location trackers. While some phones have this feature as a stand-alone setting, others bring it as a part of the overall bundle and it is usually available in the location or privacy settings. You also could turn off all the location based features on your smartphone. This will certainly prevent the activation of your GPS. This in turn prevents your phone from providing inputs and feedback as far as its location is concerned. Yes, of course, activating airplane mode as mentioned above could also help you to disable the GPS. You may have to do some research and go through the user manual of the phone for the exact instructions. This is because different phones may have different ways of doing this.

How to protect oneself on iPad or iPhone

If you are using an iPhone or iPad, you will have to follow a different approach to protect yourself from stalkers and location trackers. You will have to go to the settings tab in your phone. You will come across a feature known as privacy. You must select Location Services from the privacy settings. You will come across a number of apps that are making use of your location services. Apple devices allow you to disable all of them just by moving the slider at the top. You also have the option of disabling only the location services and that too only for specific applications. This is a wonderful and easy feature that is available on all Apple mobile phone and iPad devices and it will come in handy when you believe that somebody is tracking you making use of the location tracker and other such features.

How to Do It in Android

You have a section in Android known as App Drawer. You must access the same and go to settings. Once you are there you again have an option known as Location. You can then go further into Google Location Settings. Android allows you to turn off location reporting and location history. Location reporting does the job of sending your location information and data to various applications. On the other hand location history stores everything about whereabouts that could be used for future use when you enable search applications such as Google Now. Android also allows you to get rid of your entire location history. There is an option known as delete location history and it is located just below the location history.

You should also bear in mind there are many popular applications such as Foursquare, Google Maps and other such apps. This is because these apps work only when your phone is able to give them access to your location information and data. Without this data, these apps will not be able to work. You can easily turn off location services but this would mean a number of capabilities of your smartphones. However, when you are keen to protect your privacy turning off a few features may help quite a bit.

Final Word

Finally, when you believe that somebody is illegally or maliciously tracking your cell phone, you always have the liberty to get into touch with the cops and report your concerns and suspicions. The authorities will move legally and ensure that the problem is nipped in the bud once for all.