What technologies enable location tracking, and how accurate can the result be?
Location can be derived from GPS, WiFi triangulation, cell-tower (cellular) positioning, and Bluetooth beacons; combining them yields continuous, meter-accurate tracking.
The main data sources:
| Technology | How it locates you |
|---|---|
| GPS | Satellite positioning; most precise outdoors |
| WiFi triangulation | Position inferred from nearby known WiFi access points (works indoors) |
| Cellular positioning | Cell-tower triangulation; coarser but always available with signal |
| Bluetooth beacons | Short-range fixed transmitters pinpoint you indoors (shops, museums) |
The privacy concern is that apps fuse these signals: GPS + WiFi + cell-tower triangulation together give continuous, meter-accurate location, far beyond what any single source provides. This is why location tracking is treated as its own topic — with distinct technical implementations and data sources to understand.
Gotcha: WiFi and Bluetooth positioning work even when GPS is off or unavailable indoors — turning off "location" in the obvious sense does not necessarily stop all of these signals.