New Delhi: A rumor has been doing the rounds on social media for the past week that a recent iOS or Instagram update activates “exact location” on users’ phones, making them vulnerable to stalkers and criminals. .
An influencer marketing firm made this claim, which was amplified on Instagram by other users.
“Since a new update, people can find your exact location from Instagram and this is being used by individuals to target people to commit crimes including theft, stalking etc (sic),” it further added. Recommends you to keep your exact location locked.
However, the precise location feature is not new. According to PC Magazine, Apple announced it in 2020 and Google released it with Android 12.
Precise Location is useful when users want step-by-step directions or being directed to a restaurant they can walk into.
According to the magazine, precise location on social media apps helps narrow down users by providing them with more relevant places to tag them in their posts.
After the viral post about the exact location, Instagram clarified that it does not share users’ locations with others.
“Like other social media companies, we use precise location for things like location tags and map features,” the social network tweeted. “People can manage location services through their device settings, and tag locations on their posts if they want to share that information.”
Users who are concerned about their location can change their phone’s settings. They can instruct certain apps to only see their approximate location.
On the other hand, turning off accurate location for apps like Google Maps and Uber can lead to service issues.