How To Turn Off Geolocation In Chrome And Other Browsers?

If you have tried searching for any TV shows or sports online, you are most likely to see a prompt below the address bar asking for your location. Geolocation is a rather new feature, which allows browsers to track your location and send you location specific search results.

If you are concerned about your privacy, you may feel uneasy sharing your location with others online. Here, I shall discuss how you can turn off Geolocation in Chrome and other browsers.

What Is Geolocation Used For?

When you browse some specific websites, you may notice that these websites require the location of your computer to load some content, or simply as an additional layer of information. When you allow this on your device, details such as your IP address and MAC address are shared with the website hosts.

The collected data is saved in the form of Cookies. This feature is usually used to send location specific search results. At times, this can be very useful as you get only those results, which are most relevant to your location. For example, if you search for a movie or show tickets, you only get the results from theatres and stadiums close to your location.

Geolocation is also used at times to block region-specific websites for your country. This is an extreme measure taken by some institutions to block internet content based on the user’s geographical location.

How To Disable Location On Chrome And Other Browsers?

If you are privacy conscious and are uncomfortable sharing your location, you can turn off geolocation in Chrome and other browsers that you use to disable location tracking.

Disable Location On Chrome

To turn off location tracking in Google Chrome, follow these steps:

1. Open Google Chrome on your Windows 10 device.
2. Locate and click on the hamburger menu (three vertical dots) in Chrome.
3. From the context menu that opens, select Settings.
4. Scroll down to locate and click on Advanced.
5. Under the Privacy and Security section, click on Site Settings.
6. Click to expand the Location section.
7. Locate the switch that says, “Ask before Accessing” and make sure the toggle is set to On.

Here, you will also find websites that have access to your location. To delete permissions for any website, click on the Delete icon next to the website.

Disable Location In Firefox

To turn off location tracking in Mozilla Firefox, follow these steps:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox on your system.
2. Type about:config in the address bar of Firefox and press Enter.
3. Firefox will show you a warning “This will void your warranty”. Click on the I Accept the risk! button to open the advanced settings for your browser.
4. Type enabled in the search bar to find the setting.
5. Double click on the said value to toggle its value from true to false.

This will turn off Geolocation for your Mozilla Firefox browser.

Disable Geolocation In Opera

Opera is loosely based on the Chromium project, so turning off Geolocation tracking is quite similar to Chrome. Follow these steps to turn off Geolocation in Opera:

1. Open Opera on your device.
2. Locate and click on the Opera logo in the window to reveal additional settings.
3. Go to the Advanced tab and click on Content Settings.
4. Locate and click on Location.
5. Here, click the “Ask Before Accessing” radio button.
6. If you want to block location sharing, click on the Do not allow radio button instead.

This turns off location tracking for the Opera browser.

Disable Geolocation In Brave Browser

Brave browser is based on the Chromium project, so the steps to turn off Geolocation are very similar to how you do it in Google Chrome:

1. Open the Brave browser on your Windows 10 device.
2. Click on the hamburger menu to reveal context menu, select Settings.
3. Under the Privacy and Security section, click on Site Settings.
4. Click to expand the Location section.
5. Locate the switch that says, “Ask before Accessing” and make sure the toggle is set to On.

Disable Geolocation In Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge is one of the lightest browsers with many added functionalities for reading and markup. Microsoft Edge can also be repaired if you see any problems with it. To turn off Geolocation in Microsoft Edge, you need to do it from the Settings app.

1. Open the Windows Settings You can use the keyboard shortcut Win + I.
2. Click on Privacy.
3. From the left pane menu, click on Location.
4. Locate the Location Service heading. Turn off the toggle associated with the Location Service.

5. Next, under the Location History heading, click on the Clear History on this device
6. Now, open Microsoft Edge, and clear the cookies of your browser.
7. Next, under the Advanced section of Settings, click on Manage permissions.
8. Here, remove any site that has location access to your device.

Following this, you have disabled Geolocation for Microsoft Edge.

Conclusion

With the rapid growth of internet, privacy should be one of the major concerns of users. Now you know how to turn off geolocation in Chrome, Firefox and other browsers for location blocking. Comment below if you found this useful, and to discuss further the same.