Did you know that your iPhone tracks your location at all times, even when it’s locked? The hidden tracking feature is called Tracking Prevention and was first introduced in iOS 11. It is designed to limit third-party apps from accessing your whereabouts. This helps protect your privacy and prevents data-mining companies from gathering where you’ve been. To enable this tracking prevention on iPhone, you’ll need to first disable VPN services on your device, as most of them will interfere with the new location restrictions. If you don’t have a VPN app installed on your device yet and want to keep using one, then simply follow the steps below to learn how you can change your iPhone location without a VPN.
How To Change Your iPhone Location Without a VPN?
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to “Privacy” and tap the “Location Services” option.
- Turn off the “System Services” option in the top-right corner of the screen.
- Now, go back to the main screen and tap on “Settings”.
- Tap on “General”, then go to “Accessibility”.
- In this section, you’ll see a list of options like Speak Screen, Reduce Motion, and so on. Tap on “Change Location”.
- Now, scroll down and tap on the “Set Location…” button as shown in the below screenshot:
- Select your preferred location from the list and hit the Next button to save it or cancel if you don’t want any particular location to change now or later (this will clear all your current preferences). After that, you need to wait for a couple of minutes for iOS to realize that you’ve changed your location without a VPN.
- Now, when you open the Settings app again, you’ll see a new option like “Set Location” in the Accessibility section. Tap on it to set your new location and then you can enjoy all the benefits of changing your iPhone location without a VPN.
- To change your iPhone location without a VPN, you must be on a trusted Wi-Fi network. If you’re not, the app won’t be able to recognize your location and you’ll have to re-connect to the network before it can work. In addition, you’ll have to change your iPhone location settings again if you lose connection with the trusted Wi-Fi network.
- You need to connect your Apple device with its screen unlocked before changing your iPhone location without a VPN as iOS will ask for authorization.
- Tap the “Set Location” button again to save your new location and see the list of all locations saved in this app or any other apps in which you’ve set the “Set Location” option in the Privacy section of the Settings app or any other way.
This method is surely going to work on most of the iOS devices, but it won’t work on some devices like iPhone X and iPad Pro series as Apple has restricted this feature to those devices only (Apple has not confirmed yet whether or not iOS will allow users to change their location without VPN). If you’re having any issues with this article, please feel free to leave a comment below.
What Is VPN?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It’s a service that secures and tunnels your internet connection to a remote server operated by the VPN provider. This remote server then sends the internet connection to its final destination. VPNs have many uses, but the primary reason people use them is to improve privacy. This is because the remote server is usually outside your home country, so it is outside the jurisdiction of domestic laws, including any laws pertaining to privacy. The VPN service provider has a network of remote servers, which are connected to the internet and are accessible to customers who use the VPN company’s app. Customers connect to a remote server, and then the VPN app routes their internet connection through that server. This is useful for many reasons, such as connecting to remote offices, accessing a company intranet, or connecting to servers in other countries to get around geo-blocking.
How To Turn On Tracking Prevention In iOS 12 & 11?
- Turn on the ‘Do Not Track feature in your browser.
- Enable the “Block Tracking” option in Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services.
- Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and enable “Allow Location Access”.
- Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and enable “Disable.”
- Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, then turn off all options except for “Allow Always”.
- Turn off the location services completely at Settings \ Privacy \ Location Services, then turn them back on one by one until you find the one that works best for you (for example, turning off only Wi-Fi and then turning it back on). Then restart your device. Don’t forget to re-enable it after restarting!
- Tap on the status bar at the top of your screen and slide down until you see a small icon (which looks like an arrow pointing up) with three dots on it; tap that triangle button next to that icon repeatedly until a menu pops up, tap “Clear History and Data” to clear out all of your data from apps like Safari and Mail before trying again with steps 1-6 above. From there, try each of these steps: 1-5 again; 2-6 again; or 3-7 again (make sure you’ve turned off tracking already though). The last two should give you some idea of which is working better for you.
- Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and turn off “Location Services” entirely, then turn it back on one by one until you find the one that works best for you (for example, turning off only Wi-Fi and then turning it back on). Then restart your device. Don’t forget to re-enable it after restarting!
- Tap the status bar at the top of your screen and slide down until you see a small icon (which looks like an arrow pointing up) with three dots on it; tap that triangle button next to that icon repeatedly until a menu pops up, tap “Clear History and Data” to clear out all of your data from apps like Safari and Mail before trying again with steps 1-6 above. From there, try each of these steps: 1-4 again; 2-5 again; or 3-8 again (make sure you’ve turned off tracking already though). The last two should give you some idea of which is working better for you.
- Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and turn off “Location Services” entirely, then turn it back on one by one until you find the one that works best for you (for example, turning off only Wi-Fi and then turning it back on). Then restart your device. Don’t forget to re-enable it after restarting!
Conclusion
In the modern digital age, privacy is a growing concern for internet users. One of the best ways to protect your online privacy is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPNs create a secure connection between your device and a remote server operated by the VPN provider. This remote server then sends the internet connection to its final destination. VPNs have many uses, but the primary reason people use them is to improve privacy. This is because the remote server is usually outside your home country, so it is outside the jurisdiction of domestic laws, including any laws pertaining to privacy.
