Geodata is information about your location, about visited places, which is stored on the phone and can be transmitted to other services and services (in particular, Google loves to track users).
Geodata transfer is needed when you use maps (maps.me, Google maps, Yandex maps, traffic jams). Without this function, the application may not determine your location and will not get directions to the desired place. Basically, the network can determine your location based on the cellular signal and without geodata.
Any installed application on a phone / tablet can get access to geodata if you yourself accidentally granted it access. In principle, this is nothing to worry about for the average user, if you are not an intelligence officer or an undercover intelligence officer :))
Enable / disable geolocation
Enable geolocation quickly through the quick access menu. Swipe down the screen and select the icon from the menu:
You can enable or disable data transfer in Settings – Connections – Geodata.
The following settings are available:
- Detection method. Those. how your location will be determined. High accuracy is provided by the use of simultaneously three options – GPS, Wi-Fi and cellular network. To save battery power, I recommend using only the cellular signal (no GPS). There is an option for determining the location only via GPS, but it quickly drains the battery.
- Improving detection accuracy. You can enable Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth. This will allow installed applications to automatically connect to the nearest available Wi-Fi networks and devices via Bluetooth, even if you turned off Wi-Fi and bluetooth. For safety reasons and to conserve battery power, I recommend disabling both of these functions.
- Recent Location Requests – Shows which apps have requested access to your location data. Usually these are navigation services or Google, Yandex. There is nothing wrong with that. But if an unknown application constantly monitors your geolocation, disable or delete it.
- Location. This is where the history of your locations is stored (requires a Google account). You can delete the story if you don't want your friends to know where you are.
There is nothing wrong with transferring your geodata to third-party applications. If you are not paranoid, do not turn off the transfer of geodata. By doing this, you are helping to improve the search and navigation services of Google and Yandex. Nobody needs you. And if you are interested in the special services, they will find you in any case.