Phone Tracking Australia: 5 Proven Steps to Take Back Control
By Tony · FreedomTech · 9 min read · Updated June 2026
Phone tracking Australia is so routine that the privacy regulator now counts the fallout by the hundred.
In the first half of 2025 alone, Australian organisations reported 532 data breaches to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, close to three every day. Every breach makes the news. Companies apologise, senators ask questions, and then everyone goes back to carrying the same phone that has been quietly sending data to a server overseas since the moment they switched it on.
That is the part nobody wants to talk about. Not the breaches, the tracking that is working exactly as designed. On a standard phone, Android or iPhone, it starts before you have opened a single app. Here are five practical steps to reduce it, with a straight account of what each one does and where it stops.
The short version
- On a standard phone the tracking starts before you open an app. On Android it is Google's services; on iPhone it is Apple's.
- An iPhone stops other companies tracking you better than stock Android does. It does nothing to stop Apple itself.
- Steps 1 to 4 (permissions, app sources, a real VPN, switching off the built-in tools) genuinely reduce what gets collected.
- Software has a ceiling. Your phone is a radio, so a Faraday bag is the only way to take it off every network at once.
- To actually stop the tracking on either platform, you remove the manufacturer's services: a Pixel running GrapheneOS.
Phone Tracking Australia: What Is Actually Going On
Most people picture phone tracking as location. It goes a long way past that.
Google's own privacy policy says your Android phone periodically contacts Google servers to share your device type, your carrier, which apps you have installed, crash reports, and more. Trinity College Dublin research found Android phones send up to 20 times more data to their maker than iPhones send to Apple, and that Google's Messages and Dialer apps report home every time a message is sent or received.
The apps you install are no better. Security firm NowSecure tested tens of thousands of apps in August 2025 and found 7 in 10 Android apps carried both sensitive data and third-party tracking domains, with around one in ten not even posting a Data Safety section in the Play Store.
And it runs below the screen, on any phone:
- Location is worked out from GPS, cell towers and Wi-Fi at once, placing you within metres even with GPS off.
- Airplane mode cuts cellular and Wi-Fi, but the GPS radio keeps running.
- A torch app that wants your microphone has one reason for it: someone will pay for what it hears.
- Your device broadcasts its address to every Bluetooth beacon and Wi-Fi probe you walk past, connected or not.
For the wider picture, data brokers, government access and the facial recognition scandals, read our piece on Big Tech companies in Australia, and our Android app alternatives guide for what to swap.
What if I have an iPhone, am I safe?
If you are reading this on an iPhone and feeling safe, that feeling is the product Apple is selling you.
An iPhone is genuinely better than a stock Android at one thing: stopping other companies following you from app to app. App Tracking Transparency made third-party tracking opt-in, and that was a real win. It does nothing about Apple itself.
Even an anonymous Apple account builds a detailed record of your device serial numbers, your IP addresses, what you buy, your calendar and your listening habits, all tied back to you. The marketing is privacy. The business underneath is still data.
Stock Android
- Google Play Services reports underneath almost everything.
- An advertising ID follows you across apps.
- Data is sent back before you open a single app.
Stock iPhone
- Apple's own collection runs whether you like it or not.
- You can only install from Apple's App Store, so you cannot step outside it.
- You cannot remove Apple or run your own system on the hardware.
Neither stock phone is private. The honest fix is the same for both: take the manufacturer's software off the device.
That is why our answer to an iPhone owner and an Android owner is identical. Not a different phone from the same shop, but a phone that runs neither Google's nor Apple's services. The steps below help on whatever you carry today. The real fix comes at the end.
Go Through Your App Permissions, All of Them
The fastest win, and it works on whatever phone you already own.
On Android, go to Settings, then Privacy, then Permission Manager. On an iPhone, it is Settings, then Privacy and Security. Either way, work through every category, Location, Microphone, Camera, Contacts, Calendar, and ask one question of each app: does it actually need this to do its job?
- Allow only while using the app. Access is limited to when the app is open and on screen. The right default for most.
- Ask every time. The app requests permission each session. Good for camera on apps you open occasionally.
- Don't allow. Blocked entirely. Use this for anything with no obvious reason to want the data.
This controls what apps collect. It does not touch what Google or Apple collect underneath, which sits at a level app permissions do not reach.
Rethink Where Your Apps Come From
Where you get your apps decides who watches you install them.
On Android, every search, browse and download through the Play Store is logged to your Google account. There are better options:
- F-Droid: free, open source, signed and reviewed, outside Google entirely. No trackers, no account. Start here.
- Aurora Store: anonymous access to the full Play catalogue without a Google account, and it shows an app's tracker count before you install.
- APKMirror: APKs verified against the developer's signature, for when you need a specific app or version.
On an iPhone there is no equivalent move. iOS only installs from Apple's App Store, so you cannot step outside it the way you can on Android. That is convenient, and it is also the point. From September 2026, Google will require all apps on certified Android devices to pass its verification, which F-Droid cannot meet, so on a standard phone that window is closing. We cover what Google's restrictions mean in detail. On a deGoogled phone, none of it applies.
Get a Proper VPN, Not a Free One
A real VPN closes one door. Be clear about which door.
A VPN encrypts traffic between your phone and the VPN server, hides your IP from the sites you visit, and stops your internet provider logging where you go. If you want the fuller picture, we cover how VPNs work and what they are good for in a separate guide. If you are not paying for one, the product is your data, so free VPNs are almost always the wrong move.
We recommend Mullvad VPN. No name or email at signup, just an account number, and you can pay in cash. Servers run on RAM only, so there is nothing to hand over if anyone asks, and Swedish police already tried and left empty-handed. It is a flat 5 euros a month, independently audited, and it is what we pre-install on our crypto computers and recommend as an option on our privacy computers. If cost matters, Proton VPN has a genuinely usable free tier.
One honest caveat: a VPN does not stop Google's or Apple's own services phoning home. That traffic runs below the VPN layer.
Turn Off the Tracking Built Into the Phone
The tracking baked into the device itself, and how far you can wind it back.
On Android, the worst of it lives in Google's own settings:
- Delete your Advertising ID. Settings, then Privacy, then Ads. Delete it where you can, or reset it and opt out of personalised ads.
- Audit your Google account. Turn off Web and App Activity, Location History, YouTube History and Ad personalisation under Data and Privacy.
- Turn off Hey Google. Switch off the wake word under Settings, Google, Search, Voice, then delete your voice history at myactivity.google.com.
- Replace Chrome with Brave. Brave runs on the same base with the same sites, but blocks trackers by default and clears cookies on close.
On an iPhone the equivalents are in Settings: switch off the advertising identifier under Privacy and Security, then Tracking and Apple Advertising; turn off Hey Siri; and turn off iCloud analytics. As on Android, these limit what the maker does with the data. They do not stop it being collected.
Use a Faraday Bag When It Matters
Software has a ceiling. This is the hardware answer.
Your phone broadcasts cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS continuously, regardless of your settings or your VPN. Cell towers, Wi-Fi beacons and Bluetooth sensors around you pick those signals up passively. The software cannot turn the radio off.
A Faraday bag is a signal-blocking pouch that stops radio frequencies entering or leaving. Phone goes in, phone disappears: no cell towers, no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no GPS. You do not carry it in one all day. You use it when it matters, sensitive meetings, airport and border crossings, anywhere the device needs to be genuinely unreachable.
We stock the full SLNT range of Faraday bags, from phone sleeves to laptop bags, backpacks and key fob guards, with shielding that blocks cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, RFID, NFC and EMF.
What Steps 1 to 4 Won't Fix
Most write-ups on phone tracking Australia stop at the five steps. All of them work inside a system built for collection, and none of them replace it.
Whether you carry an Android or an iPhone, you are adjusting the settings of someone else's system, not removing it. Google Play Services and Apple's equivalents run underneath, storing identifiers before you open a single app. Deleting an advertising ID does not stop it. A VPN does not intercept it. Revoking permissions does not govern it.
A standard phone
- The maker's services run underneath everything.
- Identifiers are stored before you open an app.
- You can limit the collection, not remove it.
A Pixel on GrapheneOS
- Built on Android's open-source base, with no Google services.
- No advertising IDs and no background data sent back.
- Granular permissions, and MAC address randomised per connection.
The 2023 OAIC Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey found most Australians do not know what organisations do with their data, and half feel they have no choice but to hand it over. On a standard phone, that is an accurate read of the situation.
If you want to actually stop the tracking rather than reduce it, the answer for Android and iPhone owners alike is the same: remove the maker's software. That means a Google Pixel running GrapheneOS. It sends nothing back because there is nothing there to send, it runs on hardware with the Titan M2 chip and verified boot, and Edward Snowden has used and recommended it. Here is how to switch to GrapheneOS when you are ready.
It is the difference between adjusting the settings on someone else's system, and running your own.
Phone Tracking Australia: Your Questions Answered
Can my phone track my location even with location services off? +
Is an iPhone more private than an Android? +
Is my phone actually listening to my conversations? +
Does a VPN stop Google tracking my phone? +
Is F-Droid safe to use? +
What actually makes a deGoogled phone different? +
Ready to actually take back control?
Phone tracking Australia is documented and measured, and the five steps reduce it. If you are done managing around the problem and want to remove it, every phone we sell is a Google Pixel running GrapheneOS, configured here in Australia, with your privacy apps set up and the FreedomTech manual in the box.
Questions, or just keen to talk privacy with like-minded Australians? Visit our Telegram community.
FreedomTech · The Privacy Experts · freedomtech.com.au