![\"facebook](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/facebook_privacy_700.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It is no secret these days that Facebook wants to know absolutely everything about us<\/a>. So much so that the social giant even tracks people who aren\u2019t members of Facebook<\/a> and keeps tracking people who are even when they\u2019re not using the Facebook app. Now, in a gesture that\u2019ll make you ask why they even had to do this in the first place, Facebook is making it easier for Android users to stop its app from tracking their location when they\u2019re not using it.<\/p>\n Location settings have always been a little more nuanced on iOS than they have been on Android. Android Facebook users have a simple on\/off switch for sharing their location with Facebook and other apps. iOS users, however, have always had the option to share their location with the app always, never, or only when the app is in use.<\/p>\n Facebook deliberately shared your data with 60 companies \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n Facebook banned \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n Facebook suspends over 200 apps in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n Facebook deletes over 200 accounts and pages linked to Russian troll farm \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n Practically, this makes a huge difference, as it means iOS users can have full location services when using Facebook and not have to worry about Facebook tracking their location for the rest of the day. Android users, on the other hand, have always had to manually switch location services on and off again should they want to use them but then not be tracked. In practice, this usually ends with Android users leaving location tracking on all the time.<\/p>\n Now though, this has changed. The blog post announcing the change<\/a> had this to say, \u201cToday we\u2019re introducing a new background location control on Facebook for Android so people can choose if they want us to collect location information when they\u2019re not using the app\u2026 Until today, people using these features were asked to enable Location History. If you enabled this setting, two things happened: you would share your location when you weren\u2019t using the app and you would allow Facebook to store a history of your precise locations. With this update, you\u2019ll have a dedicated way to choose whether or not to share your location when you aren\u2019t using the app.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a big change as it now makes it easier for Android users to take advantage of location services without having to submit to 24\/7 surveillance.\u00a0It also means that Facebook features like \u201cNearby Friends\u201d will no longer show your location, even if you\u2019re not on the app.<\/p>\n iOS users won\u2019t see any change, and neither will Android users who have always had location services set to off. Those privacy-minded Android users<\/a> won\u2019t be affected as their location services will remain off.<\/p>\nIs Facebook finally getting the message about user privacy?<\/h2>\n
\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n ![\"Facebook](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/facebook-place-icon_g17tpe.jpg\"){kind=icon}
![\"Facebook](\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Facebook_location_settings_Android_ln3jlu.jpg\")
<\/p>\n