If someone is tracking you against your will

Before you change a setting, read this. Turning location off can be noticed by the person tracking you, and there are people who can help you plan first.

This site explains switches. This page is about the moment before the switch, for anyone whose phone is being used to follow them.

Changing a setting can be noticed

The Safety Net Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence puts it plainly: "Making changes will often alert the other person, and they might become more abusive." Apple's Personal Safety guide says the same thing about its own feature: people you stopped sharing with may notice that you've stopped, and on earlier operating systems they may receive a notification in Messages.

So the safest first step is often a plan, not a toggle. Every cell on this site says what the other person can see afterwards, and that half is written for exactly this situation.

Talk to someone who does this every day

The National Domestic Violence Hotline: call 800-799-7233, text START to 88788, or use the chat at thehotline.org. Advocates can help you identify ways to take extra precautions when using technology.
The Safety Net Project's Location Tracking page at techsafety.org covers safety planning, documenting what is happening, and asking a company to remove someone's access to your location.
If you are in immediate danger in the United States, call 911.

Document before you change anything

The Safety Net Project notes that documenting the abuse can help you make or update a safety plan. Screenshots of a sharing list, the date, and what you saw on the screen are evidence you cannot get back once a setting is off.

What the phone itself offers

Apple's Personal Safety User Guide walks through Safety Check, which the Hotline describes as a tool that lets you quickly view and reset information sharing and access with people, apps and devices. Apple's guide also lists, step by step, how location sharing is stopped in Find My, Messages and Contacts, and what the other person's screen shows.

When you are ready, the Find My and Life360 pages on this site describe each switch and what the other person can see afterwards.

Checked 2026-09-17 against: Safety Net Project (NNEDV) — Location Tracking, The National Domestic Violence Hotline — Internet Safety for Survivors, Apple Personal Safety User Guide — Find My and location sharing · read 2026-09-17

Where to go next

The switches themselves

Question How to turn off location without notifying It depends on the app, and only Apple and Snapchat answer it in writing. Apple says the person you stop sharing with won't be notified, and its own safety guide adds that they may notice you have stopped; Snapchat says friends you pick for a location setting aren't notified when you choose them. Life360, Google Maps and Instagram document what the other person's screen shows instead, which is not the same promise. Question How to know if someone is tracking your phone Only the sharing lists your phone already keeps can answer this from documentation. Apple's Safety Check and Google's Location sharing list show every person you currently share a location with, and both phones raise an alert when an unknown Bluetooth tracker travels with you. Start there: it is the part of this question the vendors actually put in writing. App guide Find My Find My has one switch per person, a one-day pause per person, and one master switch for everyone; Messages, Maps and Contacts all reach the same share. Apple's sharing page says the person you stop sharing with is not notified. Apple's safety guide adds that they may notice you have stopped. App guide Life360 Life360 has two different switches and they do not do the same thing. Pausing location sharing inside the app leaves a Location Sharing Paused label under your name for that Circle; turning the app's location permission off in your phone's settings is a separate switch, which Life360 documents as showing a Location permissions off alert instead. iOS 27 · iPadOS 27 iPhone & iPad One master switch, one switch per app, and a precise-or-approximate choice underneath each. Most people want the second one.