Is this app “IPS Geofence” is showing on your smartphones? Especially this app is very common in Samsung phones. On the first look, it looks like a spy app or any kind of virus.
In this post, I am going to tell you all about the IPSGeofence in smartphones?
Is IPSGeofence a Spy App or Virus? Why Is It In My Phone?
No, IPSGeofence is not a spy app or any kind of virus, so first of all, you don’t need to worry. It simply helps your smartphone to provide you with location-based features.
In simple words, smartphone companies use the IPSGeofence for user location tracking.
For example:
- When you are home or nearby, your phone Wifi will turn on. When you are driving, your wifi will turn off.
- Suppose you have a grocery app, so the app can give you notifications and coupons when you are around the grocery store.
So yes, it’s possible that IPSGeofence may have no use for you, but it’s not going to harm your device.
What Is IPSGeofence?
IPSGeofence is a bloatware app, which means it comes pre-installed on your phone, and you can’t uninstall it like a normal app on your phone; that’s why you are seeing this application in your smartphone.
As I said above, that IPSGeofence app helps your smartphone to give you location-based features,
Here are some more examples,
- When you are home, your phone will not get locked.
- If you have a smart device, then IPSGeofence can tell your smart device that you are nearby the house so they can do the custom tasks, such as maintaining the room temperature, turn on the house light etc.
To understand better what IPSGeofence is? We can understand this way.
There are two terms associated with the IPSGeofence, “IPS” and “Geofence”.
IPS means “Indoor positioning system”, it is a network of devices used to locate people or objects where GPS and other satellite technologies lack precision or fail entirely, such as inside multistory buildings, airports, alleys, parking garages, and underground locations.
A large variety of techniques and devices are used to provide indoor positioning ranging from reconfigured devices already deployed such as smartphones, WiFi and Bluetooth antennas, digital cameras, and clocks, to purpose-built installations with relays and beacons strategically placed throughout a defined space. Lights, radio waves, magnetic fields, acoustic signals, and behavioural analytics are all used in IPS networks. Source
Geofencing is a location-based service in which an app or other software uses GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi or cellular data to trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device or RFID tag enters or exits a virtual boundary set up around a geographical location, known as a geofence. Â
Here are the most common apps and services which use geofencing,
- Social networking
- For marketing
- Audience engagement
- Smart appliances
- Human resources (the company owner can be assured that their employee in the premises of the work, especially when they are on the fieldwork)
- Telematics
- Security
How To Disable IPSGeofence?
IPSGeofence is a bloatware application which means it comes pre-installed, and there is no option to uninstall these apps because these apps are necessary for the smartphone to provide certain features.
To be honest, there is no harm to keep this app on your phone, and it’s completely safe, but if you still don’t want that this app to tracks your location, then simply you can disable it instead of uninstalling it.
You can force stop the IPSGeofence; follow the steps given below to force stop the app.
- Go to your phone settings
- Go to the apps
- Go to the system app
- Tap “IPSGeofence”
- Click on the Force Stop
- Note: it’s possible that you don’t find the option to force stop IPSGeofence. In that case, below I am going to tell you that how you can uninstall this app.
How To Uninstall IPSGeofence?
As I said above that there is no option to uninstall the IPSGeofence, so you have to use a third-party app, “Package Disabler” to uninstall the IPSGeofence.
But the problem is that most of the Package disablers are paid, so you have to do little work to find a free package disabler if you don’t want to spend anything. I am sure there will be many package disablers for free, but you have to search yourself.
Once you have a package disabler in your phone, then you can easily remove the IPSGeofence from your device.
Note: if you are going to remove some other bloatware apps too then, please be careful because some bloatware app has very important use in your smartphone.
Is Your Data Safe With IPSGeofence?
First of all, it’s very clear that IPSGeofence tracks and uses your phone location. They are tracking your geographical movement that when and where individuals are entering or leaving.
But the app motive is not to steal the user information. Instead, they are using user geographical information to provide them with some advanced location-based features.
So I don’t think that they are going to misuse your data because this is not good for their goodwill and market value.
But yes, they are entering into your privacy, so if you are the one who doesn’t want that these smartphone companies use your location data, then you can simply uninstall this app.
Here is what Samsung mention about IPSGeofence
“IpsGeofence is a low-power geofencing solution preloaded by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
It can be activated only if a user activates location-based services using IpsGeofence.
Note, that IpsGeofence itself does not collect any personal location information.
– For normal operation, IpsGeofence requires ‘Location’ permission in Android OS. In addition, ‘Location->Improve accuracy->Wi-Fi scanning’ option should be activated.”
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