How to Stop “Background Location Tracking” on Your iPhone

One of the most impressive advancements that made its debut in the iPhone 11 is called the U1.

It’s a custom chip developed in-house by Apple that is intended to precisely determine the distance between two or more devices with the same hardware inside.

On the one hand, the implications of this are fascinating.

If you have an Apple HomeKit-powered smart home with dozens of smart sensors and other devices inside, you could trigger certain scenes and shortcuts based on specifically where you are in your house at the moment.

But on the other hand, if you’re a privacy-focused consumer, it probably isn’t a great idea to walk around with a device in your pocket all day that is constantly transmitting your exact location.

To Apple’s credit, they’ve acknowledged that some users may not exactly love this idea – which is why they’ve offered an option to disable the U1 chip whenever you want.

Yes, you’ll lose out on certain cool features, but you’ll also take a meaningful step towards protecting your privacy as much as possible.

Here’s how you can disable the U1 chip on your own iPhone to prevent background location tracking in a matter of moments.

1. Open the “Settings” application on your iPhone.

2. Scroll through the menu until you find the option labeled “Privacy.” Tap on it one time.

3. Locate and select the option at the top of the screen labeled “Location Services.”

4. Scroll through the list of options on screen until you can find and select the one labeled “System Services.”

5. Tap the toggle next to the option labeled “Networking & Wireless.” When prompted, select the button labeled “Turn Off.”

That’s it! As soon as you finish that last step, you will have turned off the U1 chip on your iPhone indefinitely.

If you ever decide that you want to turn it back on again, you can simply reverse the process outlined above.

It’s important to note that by doing this, however, you are making certain concessions about what your iPhone can do.

It won’t be able to use location services to enhance Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, for example. This may not be a big deal if you don’t own a lot of devices that use this type of technology.

Regardless, you’ll just have to weigh the pros and cons to decide which step is right for you to take.

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