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How to Take Control of Your Photo Location Privacy on iPhone

As an expert in digital technology and smartphone privacy, I‘ve noticed many people are unaware that their iPhone is embedding their precise GPS coordinates into every photo they snap by default. While geotagging can be incredibly convenient for organizing and reminiscing about your pictures, there are plenty of scenarios where you may not want your exact location forever tied to an image.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll walk you through exactly how to master your photo location settings on iPhone so you can take control of your privacy. You‘ll learn how to disable location tagging globally and for just the Photos app, what metadata is included in your images, and how to strip sensitive geodata before sharing. I‘ll also provide some expert tips and best practices to help you make informed choices about your iPhone‘s location permissions.

But first, let‘s look at some eye-opening statistics that underscore the importance of this topic:

Statistic Value
Global smartphone users in 2022 6.6 billion (83% of population)
Photos taken globally per year 1.72 trillion
Percent of photos now taken on smartphones 90%
Percent of smartphone users enabling location services 70-80% (varies by country)
Percent of photos geotagged with location 40-60% (varies by app and user behavior)

Sources: Statista, Rise Above Research, Pew Research Center

As you can see, the vast majority of photos today are captured on smartphones by users who have location services turned on. This means billions of images every day are being tagged with precise GPS coordinates, often without the photographer even realizing it. Whether you‘re concerned about privacy, want to protect sensitive info, or simply don‘t like the idea of your location history being preserved indefinitely, it‘s well worth learning how to manage these settings on your iPhone.

Understanding Photo Location Metadata

So what exactly is your iPhone recording when you snap a picture? It‘s more than just the GPS coordinates. Modern smartphones embed a treasure trove of information called EXIF metadata into every image file. This can include:

  • GPS latitude, longitude, and altitude
  • Timestamp of when the photo was taken
  • Camera settings like aperture, shutter speed, and ISO
  • The make and model of phone or camera used
  • Name of the photographer or copyright owner
  • Thumbnail preview of the image
  • Descriptions and keyword tags

Much of this information can be helpful for editing and organizing photos after the fact. But the geolocation data in particular can reveal a lot about your whereabouts and daily routines to anyone who views the file. As useful as location tagging can be for your own memories, it‘s wise to be very cautious about broadcasting that data publicly.

Fortunately, it‘s simple to prevent iOS from recording your location on new photos you take. Let‘s start by looking at the global location services setting.

Turn Off Location Services on iPhone Completely

The quickest way to ensure no apps can access your iPhone‘s location whatsoever is to disable Location Services entirely. Here‘s how to do it:

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap Privacy
  2. Tap on Location Services at the top
  3. Toggle the Location Services switch to the off position
  4. Tap Turn Off in the confirmation dialog that appears

Screencap of iOS Location Services settings

With this setting off, your iPhone will not tag your photos and videos with any location metadata, nor will any apps be able to use your device‘s location in the background or foreground. However, this nuclear option also prevents you from using any location-based functionality across iOS, including features like:

  • Maps and navigation
  • Find My for locating friends/family or lost devices
  • Location-based reminders
  • Ride sharing services
  • Fitness tracking
  • Geofencing automations

Practically speaking, most people rely on at least some location-enabled apps and services on a daily basis. Thankfully, iOS offers a more granular way to disable location just for the Camera and Photos apps while keeping it on for everything else.

Disable Location Access for Only the Camera App

If you want to continue using location services for most apps but prevent your iPhone camera from geotagging photos, you can toggle off its permissions individually:

  1. Open Settings and go to Privacy > Location Services
  2. Scroll down and tap on Camera
  3. Select the "Never" option

Disabling location access for the iOS Camera app

With the Camera location settings configured this way, any new photos and videos you capture will not have GPS coordinates attached, while your other apps can continue accessing your location normally based on their respective permissions.

Stripping Location Data from Existing Photos

What about images you‘ve taken in the past before changing these settings? Turning off location tagging doesn‘t remove geodata from photos already in your library. To do that, you‘ll need to manually remove the location from the image file before sharing it.

Luckily, iOS makes it easy to strip out the location on individual photos directly from the Photos app:

  1. Select the photo(s) you want to remove location from
  2. Tap the Share button in the bottom left
  3. Scroll down and tap Options
  4. Under the Include section, uncheck Location
  5. Hit Done, then select your sharing method

Removing geotags while sharing in iOS Photos

This will create a duplicate copy of the photo with all location metadata removed, which you can then send via Messages, Mail, or your preferred app. Note that the original image in your library will still have its location info intact. To completely purge an image file of location data, you‘d need to use a third-party editing tool like Metapho or ViewExif.

It‘s important to highlight that iOS location permissions can get confusing because Apple allows both the Camera and Photos apps to independently request access. You may have noticed separate entries for each in the Location Services list. For the most foolproof way to prevent geotagging, I recommend disabling location for both Camera and Photos to cover all your bases.

Recent Photo Location Privacy Incidents

Need some more convincing on why you should be careful about photo geodata? There have been a number of alarming privacy incidents in recent years:

In 2021, the widespread use of geotagged photos on social media enabled researchers to pinpoint secret U.S. military bases just by searching and mapping the GPS coordinates embedded in service members‘ public posts. Another study by IBM found over 100,000 images per day on Twitter alone leaking device location info.

Celebrities and public figures have also learned the hard way how revealing photo metadata can be. In 2018, actress Molly Ringwald inadvertently let slip former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords‘ home address when she posted a photo from an event hosted there. Ringwald had left the geotagging enabled.

And who could forget the famous incident in 2012 when John McAfee, the pioneering antivirus software developer on the run from authorities in Belize, was located and arrested due to geotagged photos of him published by journalists who failed to scrub the EXIF metadata? McAfee had gone to great lengths to conceal his whereabouts but was undone by a simple location tag.

These cautionary tales underscore just how sensitive the information captured in our photos‘ metadata can be. Even if you‘re not a fugitive or hosting classified events, it‘s smart digital hygiene to minimize your location footprint.

Managing Location Privacy in Third-Party Photo Apps

Keep in mind that the settings I‘ve covered so far only apply to the built-in Camera and Photos apps that come pre-installed on every iPhone. If you use any other popular photo apps, you‘ll need to manage your location preferences for each of those separately:

  • Instagram: In the app, go to your Profile > Menu > Settings > Account > Location Services and choose Never or While Using the App. For individual posts, you can tap Add Location when creating a new post and search for a general area or business instead of selecting a precise point on the map.
  • Snapseed: This photo editor displays image location by default when available but does not record or attach any additional geodata to your files. However, the app itself does use your location for certain filters and tools if you grant it permission.
  • VSCO: In the iOS Settings app, scroll down to find VSCO, tap Location, and select Never or While Using the App. VSCO does not embed additional metadata when editing photos but any original geodata present will be preserved.
  • Google Photos: In the app, go to your Profile picture > Manage your Google Account > Data & privacy > Location History and turn it off. For images uploaded to Google Photos that already have location data attached, the app will display a map view but won‘t record your photo locations separately from the data in the files themselves.

As a general rule, if you‘re trying to minimize geotagging, get in the habit of denying location access to any apps you don‘t absolutely need it for. And if you do grant location permissions, consider setting them to "While Using App" rather than "Always".

Putting It All Together

When it comes to smartphone photos and location privacy, a little mindfulness goes a long way. Take stock of which apps really need to know where you are and don‘t be afraid to cut off access for ones that don‘t. Review what location metadata is attached to your images before sharing them publicly. And if you‘re ever in doubt about whether sensitive geodata could come back to bite you, err on the side of stripping it out entirely.

While Apple could certainly make it even easier to manage these settings, we‘re fortunate that iOS provides pretty granular location permissions compared to some other mobile operating systems. We have the tools to take control of our digital privacy—we just have to use them proactively.

So go ahead and snap those photos to capture your favorite memories. But the next time you go to share one, take a quick peek at the location settings and metadata to make sure you‘re not inadvertently broadcasting more than you bargained for. Stay safe and happy shooting!