How To Disable The iOS 14 Precise Location Setting On iPhone

iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 are focused on enhancing user privacy more than ever. One of the many privacy oriented enhancements is the option to allow apps only approximate location access. In most cases, this should be more than enough.
For example, apps that are restricted to countries or regions, should do just fine with getting access only to the city or area that you’re located in and not your detailed GPS coordinates.

The setting is actually called Precise Location and can be enabled or disabled from the iPhone / iPad Settings menu.
With Precise Location turned On, applications will be able to collect location data as usual. This is why the option is enabled by default if an app already has location access granted on your iOS device. You have to disable it, for the app in question to give only approximate info about your whereabouts.

How To Disable Precise Location

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll for Privacy.
3. Make sure that Location Services are enabled and select the app that you want to allow access only to your approximate location.
4. Disable the Precise Location option.
Fact: The Precise Location setting shows up only if the app has access to your location. If the location permission is set to ‘Never’ you have to opt for ‘Ask Next Time’, ‘While Using the App’ or ‘Always’ in order to enable the approximate location feature.

iOS 14 Precise Location Setting From App

You can also decide each time you open an app if you want to allow it to receive your exact location or just an approximate one.
Set the app’s Location Services setting to ‘Ask Next Time’.
This will cause a pop-up to open whenever you open the app. A Precise On/Off toggle is displayed in the middle area of the prompt. Tap it to change the setting from blue ‘On’ to gray ‘Off’ and vice-versa.
Fact: Notice in the nearby screenshots how the map is zoomed out when you opt for the approximate location setting!

What do you think about this new Precise Location toggle? Do you plan to use it? Let us know using the comments section available below.

Related: Another iOS 14 privacy add-on is represented by the recording indicators. A green and and orange dot are displayed in the iPhone / iPad status bar whenever the camera or the microphone are used by an app!