Your phone may show visits to the doctor, church, and pharmacy

Your phone's location data can reveal visits to doctors, pharmacies, and places of worship. The FTC has taken action against data brokers who sell this data.

Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson explains how to limit what health apps used by insurance companies can track about you, the user.

No one needs to follow you to know where you went this week. The phone in your pocket can already record your movements. And parts of this information can be in the hands of other companies.

Your pharmacy, your cardiologist, the church you attend on Sunday mornings. The support group you'd rather no one knew about. None of that necessarily comes from hacking. This can be from regular apps that you have installed yourself and the permissions that you have given them. Here's how to make your moves, buy location data, and the settings that can limit how much you can share.

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What your ISP, websites and advertisers see

Your phone can have an advertising ID

Smartphones can use advertising identifiers that help advertisers and developers measure ads and activity. On Apple devices, the system advertising identifier is known as IDFA. Android devices can use Google Advertising ID.

When apps and systems are advertising, advertising identifiers can help connect activity across apps. When used in conjunction with location data and other signals, these identifiers can help companies create a much more precise trail of where a device has been.

And a trail stops short of anonymity. A machine that sleeps at your address every night and visits a dialysis center every Tuesday and Thursday isn't that mysterious to someone who can associate those locations with other identifying information.

The programs deliver it and keep moving

An app will ask for your location. Often for a fair reason, such as providing a local forecast or showing the nearest pharmacy. What many people don't realize is that apps can include advertising and analytics software from third-party companies. Depending on the application, its permissions and privacy practices, that technology may collect or receive information about your device and location. Location information can also become part of the digital advertising ecosystem, where information about a single device can be transferred between multiple companies. When location data leaves your phone, it becomes much more difficult to track your next location.

Federal regulators are already looking into the matter

This is not a theory of what might happen. The government spent years fighting one such case in court. On May 4, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement that prohibits data broker Kochava and its subsidiary, Collective Data Solutions, from selling, sharing or disclosing sensitive location data without individuals' affirmative consent, subject to the terms of the order. The FTC alleged that Kuchava sold location data from hundreds of millions of cellphones that could track people to health facilities, places of worship and other sensitive locations. Kuchava did not admit his mistake. Kuchava was not alone. In December 2024, the FTC took action against two other location data companies, Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla, for allegedly selling sensitive location data.

In January 2025, Gravy Analytics was breached. A hacker posted what they claim was 17 terabytes of stolen data on a Russian cybercrime forum. Examining one sample, security researchers found more than 30 million location points, including phones from the White House, the Kremlin and military bases around the world. The data was reportedly obtained from everyday applications, including games and dating apps. Think about what it means. A company collects movements. Regulators are taking action on how to handle sensitive location data. Then the criminals apparently end up with a huge collection of data anyway.

What your gestures actually tell a stranger

Remove the technical language. A few weeks of location data could potentially show:

Which clinic do you visit and how often do you return?

Which worship service do you attend and do you still attend?

Whether someone else lives at your address

Which relatives do you meet and on what day?

These last few can turn a privacy problem into a security concern. A device that regularly goes home at the same time and returns two hours later can show patterns about when someone might be away. Location information can also make a scam call more convincing. "I'm calling from the billing office at the clinic on Oak Street about your visit last week" is much harder to dismiss when the clinic and timing are correct. And with Medicare's open enrollment beginning Oct. 15, a caller who sounds like they know your doctor or pharmacy may sound more convincing than a random scammer.

If you've ever tapped "Allow" in a weather app, a store app, or a game, you've probably shared it. You may have given this permission years ago and forgotten about it. Even apps without precise location permission may be able to estimate your general area from information such as your internet connection. You can't make yourself invisible, but you can make your movements harder to track.

You can't prevent your phone from knowing where you are and still use any location-based features. But you can limit the apps that receive this information and reduce some of the identifiers used for advertising and tracking. None of this requires technical skill and you can tackle one episode at a time.

Advertising identifiers aren't the only way companies can identify a device, but limiting them can remove one of the tools used to link activity for advertising purposes.

First, control whether apps can ask for permission to track you on other companies' apps and websites:

When this setting is off, apps that ask for permission to track are treated as if you selected Ask App Not to Track. They cannot access Apple's system advertising identifier, known as IDFA.

Apple also has a separate setting for ads that Apple itself provides:

This second setting limits the way Apple can personalize the ads it offers in services like the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks. It is separate from the application tracking control above.

Your doctor's office scammer may already know who you are

Scroll down and tap More privacy settings

If that option appears, tap Remove Advertising ID

Depending on your Galaxy model and software configuration, you can find Google ad controls via Settings > Google > All Services > Ads.

Removing an advertising ID prevents apps from accessing that specific Google advertising ID. It does not block any form of advertising, analytics or device identification.

Google says that removing an advertising ID will remove that ID. Programs that try to access it get a null string instead. Apps can still have their own privacy and ad settings, so it doesn't eliminate any form of tracking.

Now see which apps can see where you are and if they really need this access.

Select the appropriate access, such as Never, Ask next time, or when I share, or while using the app

If the app does not need your precise location, turn off precise location

You don't have to turn off location services completely. Doing so can interfere with useful features. Instead, focus on apps that have more access than you need.