Turn off location services on your Android devices.
The location services function can be turned on or off in Android’s setting menu. It is off by default. However, Apple, Microsoft, and RIM turn on location services by default. However, your cell phone registers its location with cell phone networks several times a minute, and this function cannot be turned off when the phone is getting a wireless signal. Moreover, each mobile user’s daily movements can be used to create a unique digital fingerprint over an extended period of time. Therefore, it is possible to identify smartphone users by analyzing anonymous location data to look for patterns. American Civil Liberties Union reported in April 2012 that most police track phones’ locations without warrants.
In June and July 2014, Russian soldier Alexander Sotkin posted two selfies on Instagram, being unaware that his phone logged the coordinates where the photos were taken and that location data were uploaded to the Instagram Photo Map. As a result, he inadvertently revealed that he was on the Ukrainian side during the time of conflict. In August 2014, The Wall Street Journal revealed that the revamped foursquare mobile app tracks its user’s GPS coordinates even when the app is closed. In case you may forget to turn off location services after using Google Maps, Prof. Janne Lindqvist at Rutgers University has developed an Android app to automatically warn you when apps are tracking your location. “Because we know how ubiquitous NSA surveillance is, this is one tool to make people aware,” said Lindqvist.
Source: Newton Lee (ed), (2014). Facebook Nation Total Information Awareness, 2nd Ed, Springer.