Most of the workforce shifted to remote working due to the unprecedented turn of events in 2020. Since then, the global demand for employee monitoring software has shot up by 78%1, as reported in January 2022.
Businesses increasingly rely on MDM solutions to track their employee location information in real-time. MDM software helps enterprise IT admins gain better visibility of their distributed workforce. The only challenge is to prevent location services from being disabled by employees.
Location monitoring is vital for some sectors like logistics and transportation, where the workforce is remote and always on the move.
A large number of businesses provide company-issued Android phones to employees to stay connected on the go and access business apps and networks.
Employees sometimes could disable the location services on their Android devices to reduce battery consumption or for privacy reasons.
However, location services must always be on for businesses to successfully monitor their remote employee locations. MDM helps businesses enforce location services on company-issued devices.
Why Is It Important to Lock Location Services on Android?
The best examples of businesses that need to monitor their employee locations constantly are delivery services, at-home services and logistics and transportation.
Enterprise IT teams can constantly know their employee whereabouts, regardless of their precise location, using location monitoring services.
GPS-based location tracking helps transportation and delivery businesses optimize delivery routes for their drivers and agents and inform them about potential road closures in advance.
It also helps enterprise IT teams monitor the performance of their drivers and servicemen and ensure maximum productivity.
Most modern businesses provide pre-provisioned Android devices to their truck drivers or last-mile delivery executives to stay connected with their team members, managers and customers.
Given the dynamic nature of their work, employees are prone to misplacing their mobile devices.
Location tracking using MDM solutions helps businesses instantly locate employees’ lost or stolen devices and remotely lock them and wipe all the sensitive business information from them.
Scalefusion MDM for Efficient Location Monitoring
Scalefusion MDM solution allows IT admins to monitor their distributed workforce and get a bird’s-eye view of their locations. You can monitor real-time locations and create geofence-based alerts.
Scalefusion helps you gain granular control over company-owned Android devices by enabling you to configure location sampling frequency and accuracy mode.
To ensure that you have constant visibility of remote employees, you can enforce location services on your employee Android phones.
How To Prevent Location Services From Being Disabled
You can ensure that you prevent your end-users from turning off the GPS services on their Android devices in just a few clicks. All you need is a Scalefusion account and your employee Android phones enrolled into Scalefusion MDM.
Pre-requisites
To effectively prevent location services from being turned off on Android devices, ensure the following prerequisites are met:
- Scalefusion Account: Establish an active Scalefusion account to manage and monitor your devices.
- Device Enrollment: Enroll all target Android devices into the Scalefusion platform to apply and enforce policies.
- Administrative Access: Possess administrative privileges within Scalefusion to configure device settings and restrictions.
- Location Permissions: Ensure that the Scalefusion client app on each device has the necessary location permissions granted during setup.
- Compliance with Regulations: To maintain compliance, adhere to local laws and organizational policies regarding location tracking and user privacy.
Method 1:
Step 1: Log in to your Scalefusion admin account.
Step 2: Navigate to Location & Geofencing on the right-hand side feature menu and click Location Settings.
Step 3: Turn on the Force GPS always-on button to prevent location services from being disabled on your Android devices.
Step 4: You can further explore various location tracking capabilities that Scalefusion offers, such as selecting the location tracking mode and sampling frequency.
Step 5: Click Save Settings at the bottom right-hand corner.
Method 2:
Step 1: Log in to your Scalefusion admin account.
Step 2: Create a new Android device profile or edit the existing one by navigating to the Device Profiles section under Device Profiles & Policies on the feature menu.
Step 3: Navigate to Restrictions and click on Network & Location Settings.
Step 4: Under Location Settings, turn on the option to Override Global Location Settings. This option will override all the settings you must have previously configured under the Location & Geofencing section of the dashboard.
Step 5: Click the Force GPS always on and update the profile.
Closing Lines
Location monitoring may be construed as privacy intrusive by some employees. However, most employees know that it is vital for businesses to track their location constantly during working hours to make remote work a success.
Enforcing GPS on via the Scalefusion dashboard disables the option to turn off GPS tracking for your end-users. Monitoring your employee locations becomes effortless with Scalefusion MDM.
FAQs
1. How can you always keep your location ‘ON’ on Android?
While directly locking location services to “always on” might require Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions, you can achieve similar functionality on most Android devices by enabling “High accuracy” mode and granting location access “all the time” to specific apps. This optimizes location accuracy for those apps that need it most.
2. Does turning off location services stop tracking?
It depends. Disabling location services (turning off location on Android) on your device can limit location tracking by apps and services, but it might not stop it completely. MDM solutions from your organization can potentially use other methods to track location
3. Can you remotely turn on the location services of Android devices?
Android Device Management can’t directly enable location services, but it can:
- Push policies to recommend enabling location for work purposes.
- Manage app permissions to prompt users to turn it on for needed apps.
4. How to disable location tracking on Android?
MDM can’t directly disable location services, but by restricting app permissions and potentially removing location-dependent apps, it can indirectly limit location tracking on devices.
5. How to lock location on Android?
To lock location on Android devices, use a UEM solution like Scalefusion. Enroll devices, enable location services, and apply restrictions through the dashboard to prevent users from disabling or altering settings. This ensures accurate tracking, enhances security and effortlessly maintains compliance.
