X has quietly turned on a feature that adds to user profiles a label with the location where an account is based or is currently posting from. The rollout has raised privacy questions and some confusion, but there are steps you can take right away within X to make that characterization a little less accurate.
What X Displays on Profiles and Why That Matters
For many users, the new label shows up on their profiles as a country by default (although in some instances X seems to be deducing something more like a region). The company has not specified what signals it uses, but most companies will use the same as TikTok: IP address, mobile network information, and sometimes device location permissions. Industry data from suppliers such as MaxMind and IP2Location implies that IP-based geolocation is accurate to the right country in 95–99% of cases, while city-level detail varies hugely and can fall below 70%—a reminder that “location” isn’t always entirely clear-cut, especially on mobile or behind corporate gateways.
Even a country label can feel fraught for journalists, activists, or anyone trying to cleave their professional identity from their physical location. Digital rights organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Access Now, have consistently advised reducing the signals sent by constant location check-ins on social platforms for years, reporting threats that run from harassment to doxxing in adversarial situations.
How to Turn Down Your X Profile Location Visibility
You can decrease the specificity of the label in X’s settings. On the mobile app or the web, navigate to Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety > About your account. There, you should see a Location preference associated with your account details.
- If the option is available, pick a bigger geography.
- Users report options such as your country, a larger region, or an entire continent.
- Choose the largest area possible to make it more difficult for anyone to deduce where you travel from one day to the next based on profile visits alone.
While there, look for other location-related toggles under Privacy and safety, including personalization settings that rely on places you have been. The precursor to X previously deprecated precise geotagging of tweets because so few people use it, but app-level switches can still provide signals for recommendation and safety systems if toggled on.
Further Steps To Cover Your Location Signal
- How much a VPN costs for this specific service in a certain region depends on the provider. Use a VPN with exit nodes in the region(s) you’d be comfortable displaying. A good VPN can change the network signal most services use to determine country. Note that VPN ranges are occasionally flagged or mapped incorrectly, which can result in a location label that appears random or unlikely. That can be confusing for collaborators—or even a boss—if they take it at face value.
- Check your phone’s OS permissions. On iOS, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, tap X, and then turn off Precise Location or location access completely. For Android users, navigate to Settings > Apps > X > Permissions > Location and set the switch to Deny. This doesn’t thwart IP-based detection, but it removes a potentially high-fidelity signal that could be correlated with other data.
- Don’t post cues that keep you anchored. Photos with landmarks, event check-ins, and timestamps establishing that you were in one city or another can triangulate your location on even the broadest swath of a profile. Security trainers also often warn that patterned behavior—such as location tags on a commute each day—can be more revealing than a one-off check-in.
Why the Location Label Rollout Is Raising Debate
Some users reported that the feature flew in and out for them during initial rollout, while others had locations flicker all over their profiles relative to known locations. That’s not uncommon in initial geolocation rollouts: mobile carriers might route traffic through different locations, enterprise networks could be a source of origin obfuscation, and VPNs or travel can flip labels from one session to another.
The stakes are even higher for vulnerable communities. In its Internet freedom reporting, Freedom House has noted the increasing trend of social media users being targeted across borders: even coarse regional geolocation information can allow adversaries to time harassment or match X accounts to identities. Clear opt-ins, transparent explanations of where data comes from, and straightforward controls are best practices when platforms expose location information.
Reality Check On Accuracy And Expectations
No location system is perfect. Corporate VPNs might anchor you to a different city than your own, public Wi‑Fi can lead back to an ISP hub hundreds of miles away, and mobile networks routinely miscategorize rural users. The result: treat the label as a rough signal, not evidence of someone’s precise presence.
The pragmatic approach for your own account: set the broadest allowed region in X, disable app location permissions at the OS level, and, when in doubt, use a VPN. In combination, those steps markedly dull precision without hindering core features like posting and messaging.
Bottom Line on Managing X Profile Location Labels
Location stickers on X are live, and though the data is somewhat jagged, it changes what visitors see on casual profile views. If you demand discretion, make the label bigger in settings, revoke precise app location permissions, and consider a VPN for good measure. Broad is better than precise—and for many users, that’s the difference between being findable and being safe.
