Can't stop google maps from following me!

Magma007

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
3
0
1,510
Hello,

I use my google account on my android mobile phone and my windows 10 laptop, to prevent chrome (on my laptop) from detecting my location I have added _nomap to the SSID and I use LocationGuard to lock my location to work location. It worked, whenever I open google maps it will go to my work location regardless of my actual location.

Now the problem is recently google maps on my laptop started to detect my actual location very precisely, I suspected it's because I used the same google account of my android phone, so I logged-out google account an reloaded google maps and it went to LocationGuard location.

Here things got crazy, I switched off location services on my mobile, google maps on the laptop sill detects my location, used Fake GPS app to change the location on my phone, and guess what! google maps on the laptop still detect my location, precisely! whereas on the Android device, it's going to the Fake GPS location.

The only solution so far is to log-off the google account on the laptop, but I can't as I'm using Gmail.

Any idea how to prevent Google from detecting the laptop location.
 

10tacle

Distinguished
Dec 6, 2008
329
0
19,010
Your only solution is to buy a VPN program that can be used on both smart phones and your laptop/PC where you can spoof any IP address from around the world. However, not all smart phones and cell phone providers allow VPN utilities which is usually rooted in legality reasons (or public safety reasons like say you get lost in a forest while hiking and they have to triangulate/narrow down your location). Also keep in mind some of these VPN IP addresses you pull off of have been blocked by websites because spammers use them too.
 
Im personally not afraid of google tracking me since its pretty usefull when i lose my phone which most of people didnt know that gmail has option to track your device for safety. Same example for iphone, you lose it and lock and black list it soo it becomes unusable.
 
Jun 19, 2018
1
0
10
I would encourage you to follow the steps at this link. I've had no issues when doing it this way and it will also tell you how to erase your location history, should you decide you want to be rid of that. Good luck!

https://venturebeat.com/2014/08/17/yes-google-maps-is-tracking-you-heres-how-to-stop-it/
 

Magma007

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
3
0
1,510








Thanks for your input, but I'm not after shutting off location services on my phone, I use it for photo geotagging and GPS maps. and I have a VPN as well, forgot to mention that.
My issue is to prevent the google maps/chrome on my windows laptop from pulling my location from the phone.
 

Magma007

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
3
0
1,510
Further Update:

To test if the laptop gets the location from an external source or locally, I did an experiment, the results were strange!:

1- Switched on the VPN service on my phone and laptop, each device different country
2- On my phone, switched on location mock by using FakeGPS app
3- On the phone, I checked google maps app, the location is the FakeGPS app location, not the actual location, to test that further, I used chrome browser to check google maps (while logging in), and the location was also FakeGPS app location.
2- On the laptop, I installed a fresh browser and logged-in in a new google account, went to maps.google (while logged-in in the new g account) and the location was the country of the VPN server
4- Logged-out and logged-in in my original G account (which I'm using on my phone), and the location was the true location!!!!!!

Anybody can explain how the laptop gets the true location, regardless of using VPN and GPS mock???