How to stop Facebook from tracking your location

In a bid to improve users' trust, social media company Facebook has announced some new location control settings for Android (and iOS). The update aims to give Facebook users more control over just how much information they share with the social network, said an Android Police, adding that the new setting improves upon the background location. According to report, the app can access users location even when they are not using it – offering a two-step process. First, users need to decide whether or not the Facebook app has access to their location data at all, after that they have to determine whether they want the background stuff going, too. The second step is meant to help with things like Nearby Friends, suggestions for stuff to do, and more relevant ads, the report said.

It further inform that none of previous choices in this regard will change, and Background Location will remain disabled if users never opted into Location Services. Facebook will, however, alert people who earlier opted to give the settings a quick look to see if they want to change anything, the report said. 

Introducing the new privacy control feature to its Android app, Paul McDonald, Engineering Director, Location Infrastructure, Facebook wrote in a blog-post on Wednesday, "We`re introducing a new background location control on Facebook for Android so people can choose if they want us to collect location information when they`re not using the app." 

So far, Facebook users using features location like "Nearby Friends" or "Check-in" on the social media were asked to enable their "Location History" setting. 

Enabling the "Location Sharing" feature shared the user location even when the app was not being used, allowing Facebook to store that history. 

The the blog, McDonald further said, "With this update, you`ll have a dedicated way to choose whether or not to share your location when you aren`t using the app," adding "We`re not making any changes to the choices you`ve previously made nor are we collecting any new information as a result of this update." 

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Notably, Facebook is also updating the "Access Your Information" feature to include an estimate of users` primary location at the city or postal code level.