You may be a little disappointed to discover a VPN doesn’t stop Google from knowing where you are. You’ll know this to be true if you’ve ever tried changing your IP address with a VPN only to find Google still shows you news, weather, or PlayStore options related to your real location.
The truth is, while a VPN does a good job of obscuring your digital identity and location from many parties online, including websites, advertisers, and the government, Google now has increasingly sophisticated methods of figuring out your true location.
In this article, we’ll cover the various ways Google gathers location data, and what you can do to make it as hard as possible for anyone, including Google, to pin you down.
How Does Google Work Out Where You Are?
A VPN lets you change your IP address to almost anywhere in the world, no matter where you really are. This may be enough to convince some apps and services your location has changed, but not Google. That’s because, besides your IP address, Google looks at many other factors to work out your whereabouts. These include:
GPS and Location Services
If you’ve enabled GPS on your device, which you must if you want to use Google Maps or other mapping tools, Google can track your movements that way. GPS tracking is highly precise and provides real-time location information. Google records and archives that activity as a personal map it calls Timeline. The feature helps both you and Google remember places you typically go to and the routes you take. You can disable GPS when it’s not needed to prevent unnecessary tracking.
Eddystone
Google has developed a new technology called “Google Nearby” to determine your location. Called Eddystone, it involves a network of beacons that each transmit a radio signal over a small distance, via a blend of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ultrasonic sounds.
The beacons don’t track your movements themselves, but Google’s apps do. The beacons transmits an identifier, which apps such as Google Maps use to work out where your device is located.
This location system is built into Windows, too, and Apple has its own version, called iBeacon, for iOS and Mac OS.
Browser Location API
Google uses the HTML5 Geolocation API to track users’ locations in web browsers. When you visit a website that needs to know yourlocation, the browser prompts you for permission. If you agree, the browser retrieves your location data using functionality like GPS.
The location data may include latitude, longitude, and other relevant information. Most popular browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge) support HTML5 geolocation. Websites use it to filter content based on your location, for example to show you localized ads or languages.
If you’d rather they didn’t, you can turn off location sharing in your browser settings.
Wi-Fi & Mobile Network Information
Even if you’re not connected to Wi-Fi or GPS, Google can measure signal strengths from nearby Wi-Fi networks and cellphone towers.to work out your rough position. Mobile devices, for example, connect to different cell towers. Google triangulates the signals from nearby towers to estimate your location. The same rule applies to Wi-Fi networks.
Even disconnecting from Wi-Fi won’t help entirely conceal your location, as your device is constantly scanning for nearby Wi-Fi networks. When your device detects a router’s broadcast signal, it can pinpoint its location based on its BSSID (Basic Service Set Identifiers). BSSIDs are like MAC addresses for access points and are typically publicly viewable. This is why you can pick up your neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks, even if you can’t necessarily connect to them.
Cookies & Browser Fingerprinting
Websites create cookies that are stored on your device and record data about your visits. These data packets include information about your location, which Google uses to work out where you are. Deleting all cookies can make it more difficult for Google to figure out where you’ve been.
Browser fingerprinting uses your browser settings to attempt to assign a unique profile or fingerprint to your device. Once your device has been fongerprinted, online trackers can monitor your internet patterns, behaviors, and interests for advertising or other purposes.
Your Google Account
Google tracks all your movements through your Google account. It also tracks your search queries, so a few local searches is all it takes for Google to decide you’re living in the same region. If you don’t have a Google account, your location and browsing history can’t be recorded. If you do have a Google account, and you don’t want Google Maps to log your movements or Google to track your search history, simply log out of your account in the Maps app and your Chrome browser.
IP Address Leaks
A VPN can hide your real IP address which helps you remain anonymous and secure. But in some cases, for example when your browser needs to connect to your camera or microphone, your public IP address is used to establish the connection. This lets you video chat directly from the browser, but it also leaks your real IP address location.This is called a WebRTC leak. WebRTC is short for “Web Real-Time Communication”, a technology that enables real-time peer-to-peer (P2P) communication over the web.
Some VPNs can still hide your real IP address in these instances, but not all do. It’s worth disabling WebRTC if you want to prevent your IP address from leaking online, and use a reliable VPN to avoid this.
When privacy matters, pick the VPN that’s got everything you need to stay properly incognito. CyberGhost VPN offers powerful encryption to scramble your online activity, along with other robust privacy features to prevent trackers and snoops. This includes a strict no-logs policy that prevents us from logging your personal data.
Your Labeled Places
Google registers any places you’ve labeled as important, such as your home or workplace, to work out your location. If you value your privacy, it’s best not to voluntarily tell Google too much about you
Your VPN isn’t Performing at Its Best
A properly functioning VPN should hide your online activity and protect your privacy, but sometimes a VPN connection fails. If your VPN is not properly connected, your IP address will leak and reveal your true location.
Not sure if your VPN is working correctly? Take our Privacy test and find out if your sensitive data is protected or exposed.
What Does Google Do with Your Location Data?
Google stores all the location data it can gather about you to build a personalized profile or algorithm. This helps calculate your preferences and predict your future behaviour. It also helps Google generate personalized ads and serve you relevant search results. But if you’d rather not have Google know your every move, there are a few things you can do.
How to Prevent Google from Knowing Your Real Location
These tricks reduce the amount of information Google can gather about your location. As well as using a VPN, which hides your real IP address and replaces it with another anonymous one in a location of your choosing, you could:
Disable Location Services
You can turn off location services on iOS, Android, and desktop. You can also delete all previously collected location data from Google services like Maps. Here’s what you need to do.
On Desktop:
- Visit the My Activity dashboard.
- Click on the forward arrow to the right of Timeline, and then toggle it off.
To delete all location data in Google Maps on PC.
- Click on the menu (the three lines to the left)
- Scroll to the bottom and select Maps activity.
- When Map Activity page opens, at the top right tap the menu. Then, from the displayed menu options, tap Delete activity by. Activity delete options will be displayed.
- Finally, to delete Google maps history from a PC, at the bottom right of the confirmation page, click Delete.
On Mobile:
1. In the Google Maps mobile app, tap on your profile and select Your Timeline > Settings and Privacy > Delete all Location History.
2. You can also delete specific visits in Google Maps app: Your Timeline > Settings and privacy > Delete Location History range.
On Android:
You can control your Android device’s location settings, but there are several ways to do this, and the method differs by manufacturer.
On Samsung devices, simply open Settings > Location to toggle between various options.
You can also turn off location services completely, though this may interfere with many of your apps’ functions. To do this, pull down the notification shade and tap the Location icon.
You could also tap Location services, and then turn off Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning, or tap Google Location Accuracy and disable Improve Location Accuracy. This removes all location tracking, other than GPS.
From Android 11, you can change app permissions individually. Tap App permissions and select either Google Maps, Google, or any other Google service. You can change the app permissions to Allow only while using the app. This reduces the amount of data Google can collect when the app isn’t in use.
From Android 12, you can disable Use precise location, which means apps can only see your approximate location.
Use Incognito Mode in Google Maps
This new feature stops Google Maps from saving your search and location history and shared location. To use it, open the Google Maps app, tap your profile icon and then tap Turn on Incognito mode. Your profile pic will be replaced with the incognito icon. This doesn’t prevent other Google services from tracking you online, though.
Use Privacy-Focused Browsers
Most browsers let you disable location tracking.
In Google Chrome:
- Click the menu and go to Settings.
- Under Privacy, click Content Settings.
- Scroll down to the Location section and select Do not allow any site to track your physical location.
Firefox, Edge, and Opera also allow you to disable geolocation.
Better yet, use a privacy-focused browser like Brave, Tor, or DuckDuckGo, as these don’t track your location.
Enable Private Browsing Modes
When you use your browser’s private or incognito mode, your location won’t be recorded on your timeline or shared with other services. That said, it doesn’t completely hide your location. Your internet service provider (ISP) can still record the websites you visit. For maximum location privacy, use both private browsing and a VPN.
Get CyberGhost VPN and hide your location and your online activity from ISPs, cybercriminals, governments, and anyone else hoping to track you down.
Clear Cookies and Cache Regularly
Clearing cookies and cache can help improve your privacy and limit Google’s location tracking ability.
Cookies are small files that websites store on your computer. They contain information about, among other things, your location. Advertisers and websites use cookies to track your behavior across different sites. For example, if you visit an online store, the store’s cookies can follow you to other sites and show you relevant ads.
When you clear cookies, tracking cookies are removed, which goes some way to preventing Google and advertisers from following you around the web.
The cache stores copies of web pages, images, and other resources temporarily on your browser. Cached content helps websites load faster when you revisit them. However, it can also reveal your browsing history and location.
When you clear the cache, any trackers embedded in the cached content won’t be able to track you anymore.
Here’s how you clear cache and cookies in Google Chrome:
- Open Chrome.
- Click the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner.
- Navigate to More Tools > Clear Browsing Data.
- Select Cookies and Other Site Data and Cached Images and Files.
- Click Clear Data.
Use Anti-Tracking Tools
Anti-tracking software prevents websites from collecting information about you and your online activities. When you visit websites, their servers also share trackers along with data packets with you. The anti-tracking tool disables such trackers and doesn’t allow them to share your data back to their servers.
What to Do If My VPN Isn’t Hiding My Actual Location?
If your VPN is failing to hide your true location, try disconnecting and reconnecting to another server. If that doesn’t work, try reinstalling your VPN. If your VPN still isn’t hiding your actual location, it might be time to switch to another provider that does. Start by trying CyberGhost’s free VPN extension for Chrome.
Go to the Chrome web store and search for CyberGhost VPN. Click Add. Then open your extensions to turn it ON or OFF in Chrome. No identification necessary!
Our extension only works on Chrome, but if you like how it hides your location from Google in your browser, you might like how it does it across your entire device, or entire network.
Download our CyberGhost VPN app – you can add it to any major device, including Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, and routers, and use it on up to 7 devices simultaneously!
Closing ThoughtsTo Use or Not to Use a VPN?!
So, if a VPN doesn’t hide your location from Google, does that mean you should stop using one entirely? Absolutely not. Remember that while Google might still know your location, using a VPN is a critical privacy and security tool that hides your IP address from your internet service provider, reducing the information Google has about you. Additionally, your internet connection remains encrypted for online security.
When you really need to ensure your privacy and hide your location, pair a reliable VPN with other anti-tracking tools and turn off any location settings. That’s your best bet to stay off Google’s radar and roam freely, both on and offline.
FAQ
Yes. Google can work out your location even if you’re using a VPN. Google collects all sorts of geographical data via your browser, the apps you use, and the settings on your device. Luckily, you can disable most types of data collection. Read this article for more details.
Yes, aside from your IP address, Google uses various methods to track your location,. These include including GPS, Wi-Fi and cellular network tracking, cookies and cache stored on your device, your Google account, your saved places in Google Maps, among other subtler means.
Google states it uses your location information to enhance your user experience and provide relevant services. It also uses it to serve you ads and search results tailored to your location.
While it may not be possible to stop Google from knowing your location entirely, you can do a number of things to limit what Google can see. This includes: signing out of your Google account, turning off GPS.
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