Location Sharing Safety: Best Practices for Protecting Your Privacy

April 6, 2025 9 min read Privacy, Safety

Location sharing has become a common feature in our digital lives. From letting friends know where to meet for coffee to sharing your whereabouts with family during travel, the ability to reveal your exact location is now just a tap away. But this convenience also comes with potential risks.

Different situations call for different approaches to location sharing. What's appropriate for a family road trip might be dangerous for a public social media post. In this article, we'll explore best practices for sharing your location safely across various scenarios.

The Fundamentals of Safe Location Sharing

Before we dive into specific situations, let's establish some fundamental principles that apply to almost all location sharing scenarios:

Core Safety Principles

  • Be intentional: Never share your location by default or without thought
  • Know your audience: Be clear about exactly who can see your location
  • Set time limits: Use temporary sharing when possible rather than indefinite access
  • Review regularly: Check which apps and people have access to your location
  • Use the minimum: Share the least precise location necessary for the purpose

Now, let's look at specific situations where location sharing is common, and the best practices for each.

Social Media Location Sharing

Whether it's checking in at a restaurant, tagging the location of a vacation photo, or sharing a map of your morning run, social media platforms make it easy—sometimes too easy—to broadcast your whereabouts.

Risks of Social Media Location Sharing

Publicly sharing your location on social media can expose you to several risks:

  • Revealing when your home is unoccupied, potentially inviting burglaries
  • Creating patterns that reveal sensitive information about your routine
  • Enabling stalking or harassment by making your whereabouts predictable
  • Inadvertently revealing sensitive locations (like medical facilities or schools)

Social Media Best Practices

  • Delay your posts: Share vacation photos and location check-ins after you've left the location or returned home
  • Use broad locations: Tag the city rather than the specific venue when possible
  • Audit privacy settings: Regularly check who can see your posts with location tags
  • Be vague with homes: Never tag your exact home address, and be cautious about tagging friends' homes
  • Check for metadata: Be aware that photos may contain embedded location data even if you don't explicitly tag a location

Critical Warning

Never share real-time location information of children on public social media. This includes school locations, regular activities, or routes they typically travel.

Family Location Sharing

Apps like Life360, Google Family Link, and Apple's Find My allow family members to track each other's locations continuously. These can provide peace of mind, especially for parents of teens or families caring for elderly relatives.

Finding the Right Balance

Family location sharing can be a valuable safety tool, but it's important to balance safety with privacy and autonomy:

Family Sharing Best Practices

  • Establish clear expectations: Discuss when and why location sharing is being used
  • Set boundaries: Consider "privacy hours" or times when tracking is paused
  • Make it reciprocal: Parents who track their teens should generally be willing to share their own locations too
  • Use the least intrusive option: Some apps allow seeing only general areas rather than exact locations
  • Focus on communication: Use location sharing as a supplement to, not a replacement for, talking about whereabouts

When introducing location sharing in families with children or teens, it's valuable to frame it as a safety tool rather than a surveillance mechanism. This approach helps build trust rather than resentment.

Dating and New Relationships

Location sharing often comes up in dating and new relationships, whether for coordinating meetups or as a misguided "proof" of trustworthiness.

Relationship Red Flag

If someone you're dating pressures you to share your location constantly, especially early in a relationship, this may be a warning sign of controlling behavior. Healthy relationships respect privacy and boundaries.

Dating and New Relationships Best Practices

  • Use temporary sharing: When meeting someone new, use time-limited location sharing that expires automatically
  • Share with a trusted friend: Rather than sharing directly with a date, let a friend know your location and plans
  • Meet in public first: For early dates, meet in public places without sharing your exact location beforehand
  • Delay sharing access: Wait until a relationship is established before setting up ongoing location sharing
  • Know how to revoke access: Familiarize yourself with how to quickly stop sharing your location if needed

Emergency Situations

In emergencies, location sharing can be lifesaving. Many phones now have built-in emergency features that can automatically share your location with emergency services or designated contacts.

Emergency Preparedness

Take time to set up emergency location features on your phone before you need them. For iPhone users, this includes Emergency SOS; for Android users, look for Emergency Location Service or similar features depending on your device.

Emergency Situation Best Practices

  • Set up emergency contacts: Designate trusted contacts who can receive your location in an emergency
  • Know your phone's features: Learn how to quickly activate emergency location sharing on your specific device
  • Use what's built-in: Most modern smartphones have emergency features integrated with the operating system
  • Consider dedicated apps: Apps like bSafe or Noonlight offer additional emergency features
  • Share precise locations: In emergencies, include exact details like floor numbers, landmarks, or directions

Travel and Outdoor Activities

When traveling or enjoying outdoor activities like hiking, location sharing can provide both convenience and safety.

Travel and Outdoor Best Practices

  • Use dedicated tracking apps: Apps like Strava (for fitness) or AllTrails (for hiking) offer activity-specific location sharing with safety features
  • Consider offline options: In remote areas, satellite devices like Garmin inReach can share your location without cellular service
  • Set a check-in schedule: Establish regular times to share your location or check in with someone
  • Share your itinerary: For longer trips, provide your route and expected locations to a trusted contact
  • Use privacy zones: If using fitness apps, set up privacy zones around sensitive locations like your home

Ride-Sharing and Delivery Services

Services like Uber, Lyft, and food delivery apps involve location sharing as part of their core functionality. While this is generally necessary for the service, there are still ways to enhance your privacy.

Ride-Sharing and Delivery Best Practices

  • Use cross-streets: For pickups near your home, consider using a nearby intersection instead of your exact address
  • Utilize in-app safety features: Many ride-sharing apps now offer the ability to share your trip details with friends
  • Check location permissions: Set these apps to access your location "only while using the app" rather than always
  • Remember data retention: Be aware that these services retain your location history; periodically clear this if the app allows
  • Use trip sharing: Share your ride status with a trusted contact for additional safety

Professional and Work Situations

Some employers use location tracking for legitimate purposes, particularly for field workers, delivery personnel, or during business travel. However, this should be implemented with clear policies and respect for privacy.

Work Location Sharing Best Practices

  • Know your rights: Familiarize yourself with your employer's location tracking policies and your legal rights
  • Separate devices: When possible, use separate work and personal devices to maintain boundaries
  • Use work-specific apps: Prefer dedicated work applications rather than sharing your personal location services
  • Clarify expectations: Understand when tracking is active (work hours only or 24/7)
  • Discuss concerns: If location tracking seems excessive, discuss your concerns with HR or management

Technical Safeguards for Location Sharing

Beyond situation-specific advice, these technical safeguards can help maintain control over your location data:

Regular Privacy Audits

Conduct regular checks of which apps have access to your location:

  • On iPhone: Settings → Privacy → Location Services
  • On Android: Settings → Location → App permission (or similar, depending on your device)

For each app, consider whether it really needs location access, and at what level of precision.

Use Appropriate Permission Levels

Modern mobile operating systems offer different levels of location access:

  • Never: The app cannot access your location
  • While Using: Location access only when the app is open and active
  • Always: Background access even when the app isn't being used (use sparingly)
  • Ask Next Time: Requires permission each time (good for infrequently used apps)

Settings Tip

On both iOS and Android, you can often set apps to access "approximate location" rather than precise coordinates. This is sufficient for many services like weather apps or local news.

Consider VPN Usage

While a VPN (Virtual Private Network) doesn't mask GPS location from apps with location permission, it can prevent websites and services from determining your location based on your IP address.

Teaching Children About Location Sharing

As children and teens get their first smartphones, teaching them about safe location sharing is crucial:

Guidelines for Children and Teens

  • Start with clear rules: Establish firm guidelines about when location sharing is appropriate
  • Explain the risks: Help them understand potential dangers in age-appropriate ways
  • Focus on specific situations: Rather than abstract concepts, discuss concrete scenarios
  • Model good behavior: Demonstrate responsible location sharing in your own digital life
  • Regularly review apps: Periodically check which apps on their devices have location access

Conclusion: Contextual Privacy

The key to safe location sharing is understanding that privacy isn't absolute—it's contextual. Different situations warrant different levels of location disclosure.

By taking a thoughtful, situation-based approach to sharing your whereabouts, you can enjoy the convenience and safety benefits of location sharing while minimizing its risks. Remember that you have the right to control your own location data, and that includes the right to say no to sharing it when that's the appropriate choice.

The technology that enables location sharing continues to evolve, but the fundamental principle remains constant: your location is sensitive personal information that deserves to be treated with care.