One thing can be several things. It’s something we all know, apparently. And in Android they also know it because the WiFi connection of our mobile can be used for many different things. We can use it to receive Internet through the router, of course. Also to connect directly to other devices through WiFi Direct. And it can also be used as a geolocation system.

Once we have this clear, we can remember that on our mobile phone there is a switch that cuts the WiFi. One that disconnects us from the networks so that the mobile starts to use only the mobile data connection. But this switch doesn’t cut WiFi completely. It doesn’t. Our mobile continues to use network detection to support geolocation. So we have turned off WiFi, but no.

Now like this, we are going to turn off the WiFi completely

Our mobile has a support system for GPS and networks to geolocate us, as there are various methods to establish an exact position. We have GPS, of course, and through mobile networks we can triangulate our position so that everything is more precise. And to these two methods is added the use of nearby mobile networks to continue obtaining references. The reason is set our position with the least margin of error possible.

It happens, therefore, that the WiFi connection of our mobile continues to search for nearby networks even if it is not being used to connect to the Internet. So we’ve turned it off, but it hasn’t turned off. Not at all. To be able to do this, and add an extra degree of security and privacy to our mobile, We must specify that we do not want the WiFi connection to be used for this purpose. We do not want it to be used in geolocation.

To achieve this we have to go to the ‘settings’ of our mobile. Once inside, we locate the section of ‘Location’ and there we access ‘Location Services’. We will see that inside there are a few subcategories with the new earthquake alert system, location sharing and others. What interests us is ‘Google location accuracy’.

We will enter there to find a switch to disconnect ‘Improve location accuracy’ along with an explanation of exactly how the functionality works. Google tells us that ‘uses Wi-Fi and mobile sensors and networks to improve location accuracy and better determine where you are‘. In the end we find that ‘if you disable these options, the device will only use GPS to determine where it is‘.

So it will be enough to disconnect the ‘Improve location accuracy’ so that Android stops using our supposedly off WiFi to improve the geolocation of our phone. Said and done. We turn it off, GPS takes sole command of location and the WiFi is deactivated (now yes) completely. One more point of security and privacy never hurts.

• We access the ‘Settings’ of the phone.
• We access ‘Location’.
• We access ‘Location Services’.
• We access ‘Google location accuracy’.
• We turned off ‘Improve location accuracy’.
• The end.