Knowing where someone is, continuously, means knowing much more: where they sleep, where they work, which doctor they see, which place of worship they enter, whom they visit in the evening. That is why location data is among the most revealing data there is, even when it does not contain your name. Your smartphone, your car, your photos and many apps produce it all the time.
Why location is such sensitive data
A single point on a map says little. A sequence of points over time tells the story of a life. Two recurring locations, one at night and one during the working day, are often enough to identify home and work, and from those two pieces of information tracing a person is relatively easy. This is why a set of location data without a name is not necessarily anonymous.
Location can also indirectly reveal information belonging to the special categories in Article 9 GDPR: regular visits to a healthcare facility, a party office or a place of worship reveal data about health, political opinions or religious beliefs.
The rules
Location data is personal data when it relates to an identified or identifiable person, and Article 4 GDPR expressly lists it among the examples of identifiers. For electronic communications services, Directive 2002/58/EC provides in Article 9 that location data other than traffic data may be processed only when made anonymous or with the user's consent, to the extent and for the duration necessary to provide a value-added service. Users must be able to withdraw consent and, simply and free of charge, temporarily refuse the processing.
The main sources of location data
| Source | What it records | Where to manage it |
|---|---|---|
| Account location history | Places visited and movements over time | Account settings or the maps app |
| Individual app permissions | Precise or approximate location, in use or in the background | Phone privacy settings |
| Photos and videos | Coordinates of where the shot was taken, in the metadata | Camera settings and sharing options |
| Live sharing | Current location visible to chosen contacts | Messaging apps, maps, family services |
| Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning | Nearby networks and devices, used to estimate position | Advanced location settings |
| Connected car | Routes, stops, driving style | Manufacturer's app and vehicle settings |
How to manage each source
Location history
If your account records a history of your movements, consider whether you really need it. You can usually pause it, set automatic deletion after a few months and delete past periods. Some services now keep history only on the device: check where your data actually is.
Geotagged photos
The camera can embed the coordinates of where a photo was taken in the file. That is handy for finding memories on a map, but when you share the photo, those coordinates can travel with it.
- Turn off geotagging in the camera if you do not need it.
- Alternatively, use the sharing options that remove the location before sending, available in recent operating systems.
- Many social networks strip metadata from published images, but not all file-sending services and emails do the same.
Live sharing
Sharing your location with a family member during a trip is a reasonable safety choice. The risk arises when sharing stays on for months without anyone remembering it. Prefer time-limited sharing and periodically review the list of people who can see where you are.
Network and device scanning
Even with location turned off, some settings let the phone scan for Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth devices to improve accuracy. You can switch these off in the advanced location settings.
Connected cars
Recent cars can send the manufacturer data about routes and stops. Read the privacy notice of the vehicle's app, check which services require location and turn off those you do not use. If you sell the car, remember to unlink it from your account and delete the data stored in the on-board system.
Real-time posts
Posting a photo tagged with the place while you are on holiday tells anyone who can see it that you are not at home. Posting places you visit regularly, such as the gym at seven every morning, makes your movements predictable. A simple rule is to post places after you have left them.
Your rights
Under Article 15 GDPR you can ask service providers what location data they hold about you and for how long; you can object to processing based on legitimate interest and withdraw consent where processing is based on it; and you can request erasure of your history when it is no longer needed.
In short
- A sequence of locations reveals habits, relationships and sometimes sensitive data, even without a name.
- The ePrivacy Directive requires anonymisation or consent for location data used in value-added services.
- Pause or limit location history and turn on automatic deletion.
- Remove location from photos before sharing them and use live sharing only for a set time.
- Post places after you have left them, not while you are there.