How To Manage Location Services on Mac

Location Services are used by numerous different applications to bring a lot of added convenience to our lives. After all, the Location Services are what allow map applications to estimate the time needed to reach a specific address from your current location or to locate your devices through Apple's Find My application. At the same time, search engines use Location Services to show targeted advertisements based on the user's location. Some people may not be comfortable sharing their private location data so readily to such a large number of different applications and entities. In that case, you may wish to disable or exert more precise control over Location Services on Mac. 

Disable Location Services on Mac

1. Go to the Apple menu and select 'System Preferences.'
2. Open 'Security & Privacy.'
3. Select the 'Privacy' tab.
4. Select 'Location Services' located on the left-hand side of the window. 
5. Click on the padlock and enter your admin name and password.
6. Uncheck the box located next to the 'Enable Location Services' option. 
7. Quit 'System Preferences.'

Keep in mind that there are other ways through which websites and Web services may attempt to track your location, such as the device's IP address or site cookies that were created while the Location Services were still turned on. 

Stop Specific Applications from Using the Location Data

1. Follow the same instructions as in Steps 1 through 5. 
2. Go through the list of app and uncheck the ones you no longer wish to have access to your location. Apps that have used location data recently will be marked with the Location Services icon. 
3. Quit 'System Preferences.'