YOU MIGHT NOT be aware of it, but your phone keeps track of everywhere you go.

This is to help improve certain services like Google Now or Apple’s Today setting by telling you how long a journey is or recommend places to go, but not everyone will appreciate that.

That said, you can check to see what locations your phone has saved and switch them off if you want. It may affect some services you use so be aware of that if you do decide to turn it off.

iOS

All you have to do is go into Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Here scroll down to System Services at the bottom and then go into Frequent Locations.

Here you will see all the locations you’ve visited. Not only can you clear that data here, but you can turn it off entirely.

Android

This is relatively easy to find. Go into Settings > Location and just turn off the location data. If you want to delete all of your location data through your phone, then go into Settings > Google > Google Location Reporting and switch it off there or delete your info.

If you want to check a map showing all visited locations, you can just go to Google Timeline on desktop or through Google Maps itself. If you click on Settings (the cog icon), you can pause or delete your location info.

Alternatively, you can manage your personal places but this is only useful if you like marking important places like home or work.

This piece is part of 12 days of tech, a series offering quick tips and tech advice for you during the Christmas holidays. You can find more entries here.

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