Important: Location and driving safety features in Microsoft Family Safety are going away. Learn more.
Locate your loved ones in the Microsoft Family Safety app. If you enable location-based experiences in Family Safety, such as Location sharing, your device uploads its location to the cloud, and other members of your family group can see your location via the Location sharing feature. If you enable the Drive Safety feature in Family Safety settings, it also relies on your location information, and you can choose to record your drives and share them with your family group. To learn more and get the app, see the Microsoft Family Safety product page.
Microsoft principles
"Your data, powering your experiences, controlled by you." We adhere to CEO Satya Nadella's words and Microsoft privacy principles while providing location-based experiences across the Microsoft products you enjoy. Microsoft recognizes that using our services is a choice you make, and you can change your mind at any time. If you need assistance with location-based experiences, contact support.
When you consent to use a location-based experience in the Family Safety app, such as Location sharing, your location information can power personalized location-based experiences across Microsoft. Location information helps us show places that are relevant to where you are. For example, your frequently visited locations and important locations will be the same for all products where you turned on a location-based experience.
Microsoft uses location information from your phone to provide a consistent experience across Microsoft products. For example, when you save places to your family group’s map in Family Safety, you’re giving addresses names (like “Home” or “Ava’s dance studio”) so you can recognize them quickly. Your saved places in Family Safety can appear in other Microsoft products that you have signed in to, showing that same name for the same address.
When you consent to use a location-based experience in Family Safety, we may collect latitude, longitude, and motion data from your phone or tablet using GPS, cellular network, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Learn more about location and general privacy at the privacy dashboard.
Go to the Microsoft privacy dashboard, sign in with your Microsoft account (MSA), and navigate to My activity > Locations. You’ll see all the location information associated with your account and how to stop providing your location.
Sharing your location information is your choice. Your location information is yours and will not be sold or traded. Family Safety allows you to share your location with your family group, which you can stop doing at any time.
Places, Location Alerts, Location Sharing, Drive Safety, and Drive Share are features that use your location in the Family Safety App. You can learn more about these location controls and how to opt out below:
We abide by Microsoft’s Privacy Principles and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We do not sell or trade your data. We do collect it to provide you a location-based experience and improve how Microsoft products work according to the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
Your location information is stored for up to 90 days, but you can choose to delete it at any time (saved places are treated differently, please see below). Deleting or turning off location information can impact your location-based experience.
If you have a Microsoft account (MSA), go to the Microsoft privacy dashboard > My activity > Filter by data type: Locations > Click Clear activity.
You can manually delete saved places yourself through the Family Safety app or have them automatically deleted when everyone has left the family group.
Anyone in the family group can contribute to and use saved places. Because of this, saved places you add are associated with the family group’s location information and will not be automatically deleted after 90 days, even if you leave the family group or delete your own location information through the Microsoft privacy dashboard. Because saved places are shared with the family group, anyone in the family group can delete them.
Delete a saved place
On iPhone
Organizer: From the family group list screen: Circle next to your name > Settings > Your name (You) > Places > Swipe left on the saved place > Remove > Yes.
Member: From your activity today screen: Circle next to your name > Settings > Places > Swipe left on the saved place > Remove > Yes.
On Android
Organizer: From the family group list screen: Circle next to your name > Settings > Your name (You) > Places > 3 dots next to the saved place > Delete > Yes.
Member: From your activity today screen: Circle next to your name > Settings > Places > 3 dots next to the saved place > Delete > Yes.
