80.2 (L2) Ensure 'Allow Location' is set to 'Force Location Off...'

Information

This policy setting turns off the location feature for the computer.

The recommended state for this setting is: Force Location Off Force Location Off. All Location Privacy settings are toggled off and grayed out. Users can't change the settings, and no apps are allowed access to the Location service, including Cortana and Search.

This setting affects the location feature (e.g. GPS or other location tracking). From a security perspective, it's not a good idea to reveal your location to software in most cases, but there are legitimate uses, such as mapping software. However, they should not be used in high security environments.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via configuration profiles, set the following Settings Catalog path to Force Location Off...

System\Allow Location

Impact:

The location feature is turned off, and all programs on the computer are prevented from using location information from the location feature.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/21719

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, CSCv7|9.2

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 1fbc0c5906efd08defd07b4da8ef8ecfc10cfa89f189f50b620a23034b09b5de