Disable Geolocation in Browsers: Geolocation is a comparatively new feature in the modern versions of most browsers. It enables websites to track your physical location, ostensibly, to grant you location related browsing results, services or choices.
You may have discerned that whenever you open any site which needs access to your location the first time, you will see your browser saying that this site needs access to your location. We have the option to enable or deny access, but we usually allow this. When you allow access, your IP, along with your device specifications, MAC address, etc. can be transferred. These specifications are stored in Cookies. Other sites are not able to access this information – only the site you have given access.
The privacy conscious among you may not want to disclose their physical location. Such users can tell their browsers to deny access by disabling the Geolocation feature. Let us see how to do it in Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, Firefox web browsers and mobile browsers.
VPNs and Geolocation
A VPN will mask your IP address from sites you visit, but this is circumvented if you authorize the website to utilize geolocation.(also see, Most Secure VPN Services in 2018)
As just heeded, your browser should ask for authorization before forwarding this data, but it is probable that it won’t. Sending geolocation information may prompt a page to block you if it doesn’t provide connections from your location.
If a site can recognize your location when you have a VPN connection, the first thing to do is check whether you are facing any IP leak by visiting ipleak.com. If on that page you can see an IP address belonging to either you or your ISP, then the problem is an IP leak – not HTML5 geolocation.
Please see A Complete Guide to IP Leaks for more information and guides to fixing the problem.
Once you have checked to make sure that an IP leak is not the reason, then you can try manually turning off geolocation in your browser.
How to Disable Geolocation In Browsers
You can completely disable geolocation in browsers using the following techniques:
Disable Geolocation on Firefox (desktop and Android)
Enter about: config into the URL bar and click “I accept the risk” (desktop only).
Type geo.enabled into the Search box and then double-click its entry to set its Value to false.
Disable Geolocation on Chrome (desktop)
Go to Menu (≡) -> Settings -> Advanced -> Privacy and security -> Content settings -> Location and toggle “Ask before accessing (recommended)” to Blocked.
Disable Geolocation on Chrome (Mobile)
Exactly the same as above, except go to Menu (⋮) -> Settings -> Site Settings -> Location.
Disable Geolocation on Safari (macOS)
Go to Safari (top left on Task Bar) -> Preferences… -> Websites – > Location. Select “Deny” for any listed websites you do not want to your geolocation. To stop all websites from obtaining geolocation data in the future, select When visiting other websites: -> Deny.
Disable Geolocation on Safari (iOS)
Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services -> toggle button off.
Disable Geolocation on Microsoft Edge
Edge is a Windows Store app, so to disable geolocation go to Window’s Start -> Settings -> Privacy -> Location and toggle “Location” to Off.
Disable Geolocation on Microsoft Internet Explorer
Go to Menu (cog icon to top right) -> Internet Options -> Privacy tab -> Location and check “never allow websites to request your physical location” -> OK.
Disable Geolocation on Opera
Go to Menu -> Settings -> Websites -> Location and select “Do not allow any site to track my physical location.”
Conclusion -Disable Geolocation in Browsers
However, the browser geolocation can act invasively when it comes to online privacy; it is not ordinarily an issue as the feature is opt-in by default. If you are of a neurotic disposition, though, or if a site knows where you are even with a VPN connection and after you have made sure for IP leaks, then you can disable geolocation in browsers.
