Windows has location services turned on by default, and it’s a bigger privacy risk than it seems, because it’s not just Microsoft that might be using that data. And unlike your phone, location services don’t do anything useful on a Windows machine, which means disabling them doesn’t have any major downside. I did that a week ago and haven’t missed it since.

There’s a real privacy cost to leaving location services enabled

Microsoft isn’t the only one tracking you

By default, Windows 11 has location services turned on, which means it uses your GPS and Wi-Fi to determine where you are. But that’s not the full story. Location services can also send the name of Wi-Fi networks and MAC addresses of nearby access points. The big catch is your location isn’t stored locally. That used to be the case but not anymore. Windows 11 now saves location history to the cloud when you’re using a Microsoft account.

All of this is de-identified, apparently — but that’s still a lot of data you’re giving away for almost nothing in return. Microsoft uses this data with location service partners like HERE and Skyhook.

It’s not just Microsoft that tracks your location, either. Any app you allow location services to can also gather your location data and build a history of your movements. Sure, Windows 11 does show a privacy indicator on the taskbar any time an app is tracking your location, but it’s easy to miss. If you actually want to see which apps are misusing location access, head to Settings > Privacy & security > Location > Recent activity.

The bigger concern, though, is desktop apps, which are apps you install outside the Microsoft Store. Those can access your location without you even realizing it because they don’t show up in the Recent Activity menu. To be fair, Windows does let you block location access for desktop apps, but it’s an all-or-nothing toggle.

Location access on Windows is overkill anyway

There’s very little payoff

Your laptop isn’t your phone. It’s not like you’re using it to check nearby restaurants or get directions across town. Windows might convince you that location services are needed for a bunch of useful things, but if you really dive in and see what those are, you’ll realize it’s not worth it.

The main things Windows needs your location for are weather, auto-setting your time zone, and Find My Device. Now, let’s talk about the weather first. Unless you’re traveling all the time, you can simply add your city to the Weather app and be done with it. There’s simply no need to give away your location data for that.

The same logic applies to time zones too. You can set it manually once and not think about it. The only time you’ll ever need to change it is when you’re moving to a different time zone. Beyond Windows, sites often ask for your location for different things — for shopping, local news, or regional prices. Even there, you can enter your city or area code manually and get almost the same benefits. Those sites don’t need to know where you’re going.

The only real use case of leaving location services on is the Find My Device feature. If you ever lose your laptop, this feature is what can help you retrace it on a map and hopefully recover it. Of course, a laptop isn’t something you easily lose like a phone. And if you do, Microsoft lets you enable location services on your laptop remotely, which means as long as you have access to your Microsoft account and your device is connected to the internet, you can track it with Find My Device.

Turning it off had zero downside for me

Everything still works as before

I turned off location services on my PC a week ago and genuinely haven’t noticed a single thing break. Everything still works as before, and if anything, I have that peace of mind of not being tracked in the background. You can do this by heading to Settings > Privacy & security > Location and disabling Location services toggle.

If you don’t want to go all-in, you can also disable location services for specific apps. Under Let apps access your location, you’ll see all your apps with a toggle next to each. Again, this doesn’t include apps installed outside of Microsoft Store. Those will still fall under a single toggle: Let desktop apps access your location.

If you’re worried about existing location data Microsoft has collected over time, you can get rid of it too. Open Microsoft Privacy Dashboard in your browser, go to Location Data, and clear it from there. While you’re there, you can also delete all the other data Microsoft has collected over time.