Sought after web browsers like Firefox, Chrome, and Microsoft Edge are enabled with geolocation services that can be used to trace you based on your network location, IP address, and WiFi.
Although this feature is useful enough, at the same time it may cause grave privacy concerns. Therefore, it becomes imperative to fake or hides your location from these popular browsers.
Geolocation indicates your location and then links it with your web browser or the applications you are using. Many services use your IP address and connected networks to get the information and sync it with the known locations.
There are many reasons for which these browsers use your location. At times when you visit some website, you might get notified to confirm your current location and acquire data relevant to your location. Nevertheless, if you wish to hide your location due to some reasons such as when you wish to stay safe from malicious activities i.e. want to access data that is location restricted, this article will be of great help to you!
How to Hide Your Location in Firefox?
Hiding your location from Firefox is easy. Follow the below steps to know:
1. Open Firefox and look for the three vertical bars on the top right corner. From there click on “Options/Preferences” and then on “Privacy Security“.
2. Now, scroll down to look for “Permissions and from there click on the “Settings” option located next to Location.
3. After this, you will be able to see the list of all the websites which asked to access your location, you can “turn off” location sharing by removing the website from the list.
4. If you additionally wish to stop getting notifications from websites to access your location, disable the box in front of “Block New Requests Asking to Access Your Location” this will automatically stop the websites to ask you for permission access.
How to Hide your Location in Google Chrome?
Google Chrome by default asks if you want to turn the location on or off for specific websites. In case you have turned the location on, follow the below steps to turn off the location.
1. Open Google Chrome and click on the three vertical dots located on the right corner of the screen. From there, go to Settings.
2. Then click on “Privacy and Security“, and from there to “Site Settings“.
3. Click on the “location” tab.
4. Now you will be able to see the “Ask before accessing” option, which should be enabled. Additionally, you will see a list of sites that are allowed to access or have been denied access to your location.
5. Click on the trash button in front of every website below the “Allow” heading accessing your location to turn it off or remove location access.
How to Hide your Location in Microsoft Edge?
Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome work similarly when it comes to disabling location. Follow the below-mentioned steps to know how to disable your location in Microsoft Edge.
- Open the Microsoft Edge browser and select the three horizontal dots located at the upper right corner of the screen.
- Now, select Settings, and from there select Site Permissions followed by choosing Location.
- After this, make sure that the Ask Before Accessing option is enabled. You will see two lists names as Allow and Block mentioning the websites for which location access is turned on and turned off.
- You can deny access or remove the unwanted sites by clicking on the trash icon in front of the websites which are accessing your location.
Faking or Spoofing Web Browser Location
To increase security, you can choose to spoof your location. The easiest and convenient way to do this is by using any free VPN services which help to protect privacy. You can also fake your location on these web browsers by manually changing the location settings.
How to Fake or Spoof your location in Firefox?
Follow the below steps to fake or spoof your firefox location:
1. Open the Firefox web browser and type “about:config” in the address bar. Firefox will give you a warning when you type this command, hit on the “Accept the Risk and continue” option to proceed further.
2. Now in the search area, type the command “geo.enabled” and make sure it’s been set to True.
3. After doing this, type another command “geo.provider.network.url”, select the pencil icon and replace the original text with what is given below.
“data:application/json,{"location": {"lat": 40.7590, "lng": -73.9845}, "accuracy": 27000.0}”
These coordinates will set your location to Times Square, New Work. you don’t exactly have to use these coordinates. You can locate your coordinates by navigating to a website such as LatLong and set any location as per your choice.
How to Fake or Spoof your Location in Google Chrome?
Using the Location guard is the best way to change your location in Google Chrome. It works by giving a fake location to every website you browse. Besides, it obstructs the websites from finding your location by making it challenging for them to detect your location accurately.
Location guard also lets you select a fixed location, which is useful in case of high-level security, and when you don’t want the nearby Wifi to get detected at all. You can set your location anywhere in the world and the Location Guard will notify that particular location to all the sites.
1. Install Location Guard from Chrome in your system. After installing, navigate to “Options” and change the Default Level to Use “Fixed Location“.
2. Now, move to Fixed Location, and from there select the location on the map. You can find any location of your choice either manually or by mentioning the address in the search bar. Just ensure that the location you are choosing has a pointer over it which can be done by clicking the location on the map.
How to Fake or Spoof your Location in Microsoft Edge?
Microsoft Edge allows you to change the location manually. You can follow the below steps to make changes.
- Open the web browser and click on the three horizontal dots located at the top right of the screen.
- Now, select the option More Tools followed by selecting Developer Tools.
- When the Developer Tools sidebar opens, Press Control+Shift+P keys simultaneously.
- After this, type “show Sensors” in the command menu and press Enter.
- The sensor menu will open on the screen’s bottom. From the Location dropdown menu, choose any city of your choice, this will override your current location. In case, you do not wish to choose any of the given cities, customise coordinates by typing “custom coordinates” under the Location dropdown menu.
Conclusion
You can easily hide or fake your location from browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox by following the above-given methods. But these websites can still trace your location by using your IP address. Till the time you use a VPN, your location can easily be traced based on the given information.
