How Do I Get My Phone To Stop Tracking My Activity?
Our phones are multifunctional devices that help us in many ways. However, every phone activity leaves some kind of digital print, similar to our fingerprints. Almost like creating our digital identity, who we are in this digital world. Sometimes we have a feeling that it’s singing to us ‘’Every breath you take, and every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you’’, the famous song by The Police.
If that data falls into the wrong hands, we can have a lot of problems.For that reason, it’s not surprising that many of us don’t want to leave digital traces. Luckily, there are ways to stop our phone to track our every activity. So, stay here and find out what you can do to stop phone tracking.
Which Digital Activities Are Usually Tracked
Regardless if you use Google, Apple, Microsoft services, your activities leave traces behind, and give information about what you like to do, buy, go, and many more. Even though they say that they do that to improve their services, they also use it for advertising purposes by instantly sending you things you have searched for or similar.
Additionally, all your web searches are ‘’tracked’’, including sites you visit and browse. If you browse for new gadgets, you’ll soon be ‘’bombarded’’ with ads on best buy gadgets shops and similar. This is why you’ll get some ads on This even means that Google knows all apps you use and what you do with them, even what your activities are on those apps.
We could go on and on about all our activities that are being tracked by Google, Apple or Microsoft. It indeed sounds intimidating, and makes people more insecure when being on the internet. On the other hand, this is how they can also check all data misuse and malwares. Luckily, there are ways to stop our phones to track our every step.
How to Turn Off Tracking Activities
Regardless if you use Google, Apple or Microsoft, you can easily turn off their tracking activities. Even though we’ll focus more on Google tracking activities, we’re also going to mention how to turn off tracking activities in Apple and Microsoft.
Turning off Apple Tracking Activities
If you’re an user of iOS devices, you know that from the iOS 14.5, apps must ask for permission to track your data. However, you can always check these permissions in your settings, and disable them.
Here are the steps:
- Open ‘’Privacy Settings’’ and you’ll see all apps with their permissions
- For iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch: Go to Settings > Privacy & Security* > Tracking.
- For Apple TV: Go to Settings > General > Privacy > Tracking.
- Then Click on ‘’turn off’’ to disable an app to track you
You need to know that some apps can’t function without some permissions, and that’s worth considering when enabling or disabling tracking activities. However, you need to know that in some cases, enabling tracking isn’t possible.
This happens when users under 18 signed in with their Apple ID, or when Apple ID belongs to educational or business organization. Also, when your device is managed and uses a configuration profile or your Apple ID is recently created.
Turning off Tracking in Microsoft Edge
If you use Microsoft Edge as your browser, you can also disable tracking of all your activities done in Microsoft Edge. in the Edge settings you can even choose the level of tracking, from basic, balanced, and strict. They usually recommend balanced tracking. You will have a detailed description of what each tracking is about.
Additionally, you can add exception sites that won’t be tracked in any level of tracking, as well as which sites you prefer tracking. For all these options, do the following:
- Open ‘’Settings’’
- Choose ‘’Privacy, Search, and Services’’
- Select the level of tracking you prefer
- Select ‘’Tracking prevention’’ and choose sites you don’t want to be tracked by
- Select ‘’Exceptions’’ and choose sites you don’t mind being tracked by
Turning off Google Tracking Activities
Under settings of each Google app, you can disable tracking. If you use Google Chrome as your browser, you can change tracking settings in its settings menu by choosing ‘’Do not track’’ or disable personalized Google search option. Additionally, you can disable Google Search History on your phones.
If you use too many Google apps and services, it can be tiring to do that separately for every app. That’s why there’s one simple solution. Here are the steps:
- Log into your Google account, if not being already logged
- You can access to your Google account via your email by clicking on your account icon on the top right corner
- Go to ‘’My Activity site’’ section
- Choose ‘’Activity controls’’ in the left menu
- Choose ‘’Web & App activity’’
- Look for Google Chrome tracking section and turn it off
- When the pop-up window appears for confirmation, click on ‘’Pause’’
- Tracking is disabled for all your activities within your Google account (look at the screenshots below)
However, you can use these steps to disable tracking for your location and YouTube history, as well. See the screenshot below.
Turning off Specific Google Tracking Activities
In case you don’t want to disable all tracking activities, but just some specific activities, there are options to do that as well. By specific tracking activities we mean word coach and places, Google Play, Interests, and Calls & Messaging, GBoard, News, and Purchases, as well as Google Podcast and Survey, including Google Assistant, Google Shopping and Tracked Prices, Crisis Response, Voice and Face Match, and Google Play Books, Stadia Store, Dictionary, and Translate, Business Interaction and Google Opinion Rewards.
We’ll provide you with steps for all these specific features. Just one note, to do these steps, you need to also open your Google account site, and choose ‘’My activity settings’’ or in some cases ‘’Data & privacy’’, and then do below mentioned steps.
Word Coach and Places
These features are related when searching for some language tips in Google Translate or Google Dictionary, or when you answer questions about places in Google Maps. Deleting these activities will remove all logged activities.
Here are the steps:
- When ‘’My Google activity’’ is opened
- Choose ‘’Other Google activity’’ on the left side menu
- Scroll down to ‘’Google Word Coach’’ and ‘’Google Place’’
- Select ‘’Delete’’
Interests, Calls & Messaging, and Google Play
These features track your activities around your interests, whom you call and text to, as well as what you do in Google Play app. Here are the steps:
- When ‘’My Google activity’’ is opened
- Choose ‘’Other Google activity’’ on the left side menu
- Scroll down to ‘’Your Interests and notifications’’, ‘’Google Play library’’, and ‘’Calls & Messaging’’
- Select ‘’Delete’’ or ‘’View Activity’’ and label them as you like
News, Purchases, and Gboard
These Google features track your preferences about news, all your reservations and purchases carried out via Google Search, Google Assistant or Google Maps, or remember those words you usually type and predicting your next activity.To disable tracking, do the following:
- When ‘’My Google activity’’ is opened
- Choose ‘’Other Google activity’’ on the left side menu
- Scroll down to ‘’Google News’’, ‘’Google Purchases and Reservations and ‘’Google learned words’’
- Select ‘’Delete’’ or ‘’View Activity’’ and label them as you like
Podcasts and Google Survey
By disabling these features, all your posts and answers in these two apps will be deleted. Here are the steps:
- When ‘’My Google activity’’ is opened
- Choose ‘’Other Google activity’’ on the left side menu
- Scroll down to ‘’Google Podcasts’’, and ‘’Google Survey’’
- Select ‘’Delete’’ or ‘’View Activity’’ and label them as you like
Tracked Prices, Google Shopping, and Google Assistant
By disabling these features, all your data related to any purchase and product browsing will be deleted, and as well all activities you did via Google Assistant. Here are the steps:
- When ‘’My Google activity’’ is opened
- Choose ‘’Other Google activity’’ on the left side menu
- Scroll down to ‘’Product price tracking’’, and ‘’Google Shopping order activity’’, and ‘’Google Assistant routines’’
- Select ‘’Delete’’ or ‘’View Activity’’ and label them as you like
Voice and Face Match, Crisis Response, and Google Play Books
By disabling these features, all your data concerning your voice and face recognition will be deleted, as well as all your crisis responses and all your activity in Google Play Books. Here are the steps:
- When ‘’My Google activity’’ is opened
- Choose ‘’Other Google activity’’ on the left side menu
- Scroll down to ‘’Voice and Face Match enrollment’’, and ‘’Crisis Response User Reports’’, and ‘’Google Play Books feedbacks’’
- Select ‘’Delete’’ or ‘’View Activity’’ and label them as you like
Translate, Dictionary, and Stadia Store
By disabling these features, all your activity in Google Translate, Google Dictionary and Stadia Store will be removed.
Here are the steps:
- When ‘’My Google activity’’ is opened
- Choose ‘’Other Google activity’’ on the left side menu
- Scroll down to ‘’Translate Segment Sentences’’, and ‘’Dictionary and Pronunciation search info’’, and ‘’Stadia Store’’
- Select ‘’Delete’’ or ‘’View Activity’’
Google Assistant and Google Pay
You can also disable your Google Assistant and Google Pay and delete all activities in these apps. Here are the steps:
- When ‘’My Google activity’’ is opened
- Choose ‘’Other Google activity’’ on the left side menu
- Scroll down to ‘’Assistant Memory’’, and ‘’Google Pay experiences’’
- Select ‘’Delete’’ or ‘’View Activity’’
Business Interactions and Google Opinion Rewards
These two features are connected with Google Search and Google Maps, but you can also separately delete all activities in these sections. Here are the steps:
- When ‘’My Google activity’’ is opened
- Choose ‘’Other Google activity’’ on the left side menu
- Scroll down to ‘’Request for Services, and ‘’Receipts shared with Google Opinion Rewards’’
- Select ‘’Delete’’ or ‘’View Activity’’
Importance of turning off tracking activities
There may be a lot to do to prevent all tracking activities, but when it’s about our data privacy and security, we shouldn’t be lazy and careless. This means to take some time, let’s say, you just have some spare time you already decided to spend it on your phone.
Moreover, for some of us, it might be difficult to turn off these features on our phones. Luckily, we have our desktop devices or laptops which can also serve the purpose. So, don’t be lazy. Go through your Google account, disable features you don’t need, and your phone won’t be watching your every step.
Advertisement
I’m amazed of the schizophrenia between different articles on privacy.
One will celebrate USA bashing Tiktok for being privacy hostile for reasons of being foreign.
Another one will talk about Noyb’s success in reminding that Google Analytics and Facebook are illegal merely from the fact that the NSA will snoop on all the data.
And this third one warns about the privacy problem with Google, Apple and Facebook being merely about having data used for advertising purposes.
On another subject, I wouldn’t use such an optimistic (misleading, actually) title as “How Do I Get My Phone To Stop Tracking My Activity?”. While the given advices may be interesting, they are only going to stop a part of the tracking, which takes many forms. Even using customized mobile operating systems with extremely paranoid settings and applications/services isn’t going to stop some of the worst tracking. Just an obvious example, location tracking from cell towers, but there are so many others.
The only way not to get tracked is to not use Internet on your phone. Otherwise, forget this gimmick phone options. They give you false sense of privacy and security.
You can do something to be less tacked. I disabled Chrome and set Brave as my default browser and installed Firefox as backup. I installed Transit app for travel instead of Google Maps. I also installed AdGuard to minimize tracking on browsers.
How Do I Get My Phone To Stop Tracking My Activity?
Don’t use one. Feasible, a highway to a better life experience :=)
Nevertheless a basic mobile is required for Two-factor authentication (2FA), unavoidable on the Web.
I use only a simple Nokia 105 which does all I need and nothing I need and wish not, mainly Web surfing and tracking. One thing I miss though is the camera, that’s about all. Always stunned to see everyone quasi continuously on their smartphones, here, there, everywhere… not to mention kids and their social-pals on social sites, totally absorbed by a distant mirage, totally disconnected from their immediate environment including those of their very parents. I don’t call that progress.
You probably know very well, Tom, that any device that connects to any mobile network to send and receive calls or sms is having its location constantly tracked. Your Nokia 105 doesn’t stop you from being tracked, just from online data tracking.
When this subject pops up, I simply tell people, “You live in Los Angeles and a friend visiting Montreal taps you in Contacts, in short order, your phone rings. It’s because among the 100’s of millions of phones on the continent being tracked, your phone is one of ’em.” (And the protocols which handle that are so old and buggy is why you get robocalls. While that could have been nipped in the bud 15-20 years ago, it was more important to get more and more tasteless garbage streamed to your phone faster and faster.)
Substitute locals as needed for your own example, of course.
@Andy, hum … I didn’t know that, I promise! The thing (the mobile) is always on the desk close to the PC, never use it except for 2FA and for receiving subscribed SMSs (news, services…). I don’t take it when going in town (except for night life). Well, you learn every day! I’ve always been convinced mobiles were innocent as the new-born child… I’m a PC guy, always have been, and obviously I got to use a tool blindly : “any device that connects to any mobile network to send and receive calls or sms is having its location constantly tracked.”. Roger. Thanks for the info. Nailed in my mind.
A simple and easy way to stop the phone GPS signal is place the phone within a metal box, if you aren’t prepared to remove the battery.
@Security Drones, that’ll be for me Info#2 concerning mobiles. Metal box. Anyway why would I care the mobile being tracked when its at home? And when I’m not at home myself it’d even provide disinformation, great.
Whatever, as mentioned by @Andy Prough, if my Nokia 105 doesn’t stop me from being tracked, it does nevertheless from online data tracking and i guess that’s the main thing as far as I’m concerned.
Michael Faraday, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage). If you aren’t up to mischief, it is unlikely your telecom provider would be “especially interested” about your GPS location, being at your own home. Other than for routine purposes.
I should have added; it’s actually more important to physically block any Wi-Fi and mobile network signals the phone uses, rather than simple GPS.
Although ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ is a science fiction action film, it has a section where a mobile phone is shielded in a foil-lined packet of potato crisps. However, one packet wouldn’t likely be thick enough armour; you’d probably need three or more layers of such bags.
Terminator Dark Fate, Bag of Chips, clip: https://youtu.be/uHXn70TjuFY?t=1
As Arnold Schwarzenegger (Series 800 Terminator, Carl) humourlessly suggests in the film, if you’re going to keep your phone in a bag of chips, then keep your phone in a bag of chips. ;-)
No, I don’t own a mobile phone if you were wondering… I do have easy enough access to dumbphone though.
Q: How to get my data collection and sharing device to stop doing what it was specificially designed to do?
A: You can not.
Summary: Don’t be gulible and believe any of this AI generated advertising disuised as content.
I did this years ago. I went to the settings and rechecked just because.
For maps I use OpenStreetMaps which is a much better alternative.
You can’t. Install a custom ROM if possible or get a dumbphone from 2003.