A technology expert It has revealed a little-known way others could be tracking you.
Most people are familiar with the ‘Location Services’ and ‘Share My Location’ settings, but Scott Polderman said a little-known feature could allow others to track you even when those settings are turned off.
“The last place most people don’t think to check is their actual provider,” Polderman said.
Tech content creator Scott Polderman has revealed a little-known way others can track your iPhone.
If you share a cellular service provider account with someone else, that person may be able to access your location even if you don’t share it with them, Polderman said.
“Whether it’s Verizon, AT&T, whatever service you have… If you have a shared account, a lot of the carriers allow some form of tracking of the other phone,” he said.
For example, many service providers offer “security” features for shared accounts that allow account members to track each other in real time.
AT&T offers a Secure Family feature that allows members of a shared account to track each other in real time. Verizon offers a similar feature called Family Base.
“If you’re sharing an account with someone else and you don’t want it to track your location (maybe you had a shared account, got divorced, or are going through one), then you’ll definitely want to cancel it,” Polderman said.
Setting up your own account will prevent that person from being able to track you.
To do that, log in to your service provider account on your desktop and cancel your membership to the shared account.
From there, you should also be able to set up your own individual account.
But to make sure your location is completely private, there are a couple of iPhone settings you’ll want to check, too.
Apple’s Find My network lets you track your iPhone from other Apple devices. But as long as Share My Location is turned off, others shouldn’t be able to track you.
If you share your location with other people, they’ll be able to track where you are in real time. Peldman explained exactly how to turn off this setting in a step-by-step TikTok video.
First, open Settings and scroll down to “Privacy & Security.” Click there, then click “Location Services” at the top of the menu.
You will then see “Share My Location” in the middle of the menu. Click on it and you will see the options “Find My iPhone,” “My Location,” and “Share My Location.”
“I would leave Find My iPhone on,” Polderman said.
This setting allows you to locate your own phone from another Apple device if you lose it.
To ensure that other people cannot see your location, you will need to make sure that the “Share My Location” option is turned off.
To verify that you are not sharing your location with anyone else, open the Find My app.
In the menu at the bottom of the screen, click “Me” in the top right corner. If “Share my location” is turned off, you’ll see “Don’t share location” in red next to “Location.”