How to find out which Mac apps are tracking your location

The privacy issues associated with our location when we’re carrying an iPhone or iPad have gotten a lot of attention. But a Mac can reveal to apps where we’re at, as well. No Mac includes a GPS or cellular modem, but between Wi-Fi positioning and cues and information retrieved by associated and nearby cellular devices of your own and those of other people, a Mac can often approximate its position fairly well.

Open the Security & Privacy pane in System Preferences, click the Privacy button, and select Location Services from the list at left, and you can see all the apps to which you’ve given permission, and for which you’ve revoked access.

The list of location-enabled apps lets you review and revoke apps you let see your position.

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To remove permission to retrieve your location: uncheck the box to the left of the app or service.

You can’t delete items from this list, only disable their access. However, if the app is no longer one you’re using, you can Control-click the an item and choose Reveal in Finder, then delete the app from your Mac.

Uncheck Enable Location Services to remove all permissions. This does disable Find Me, which can be a useful tool to find a lost or stolen Mac.

While iOS and iPadOS provide more indicators about when an app has recently retrieved location information, macOS only shows a gray arrow, which indicates if the app queried for position within the last 24 hours.

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