There’s a creepy new ‘TikTok local’ location feature, so here’s how to turn it off ASAP

TikTokers are creeped out by a new ‘local’ feature that pushes content from people and businesses near their exact location, and many say they never opted in.

TikTok

In a Newsroom statement on Wednesday, TikTok Joint Venture LLC announced “Introducing the Local Feed: new ways to discover on TikTok”, confirming that the app is rolling out a new tab designed to show posts from nearby creators, restaurants, shops and events.

the new local feed on tiktok just randomly appearing and tracking my location with no warning pic.twitter.com/3802YWCG8A

— gwen⁷⭐️彡 (@ganyuumyg) February 13, 2026

While TikTok has long shown some location-based content, the new Local Feed feels far more in-your-face. Instead of the usual global For You page mix, people report seeing a much smaller content pool dominated by posts from their immediate area.

In the UK and other parts of Europe, the feature appears as a “Nearby” tab, while people in the US see it labelled “Local”.

TikTok describes the feature as a way to “discover and connect with content, businesses, and services wherever you are,” helping people “live like a local” and find restaurants, museums, shops and events around them. Posts are selected based on location, topic and how recently they were shared.

But for many, the idea that the app may be using precise GPS location to serve hyper-local content has raised privacy concerns, especially as some people say they never knowingly enabled it.

Be careful with the new TikTok update, it now shows a tab of videos that are local to you. And if you’re wondering how local, places that are literally one mile away from me. This means that anybody local to you can see your videos and you can’t turn it off.

This is really bad. pic.twitter.com/4wPA3fJaO8

— ︎Hallae (@Hallaedti) February 15, 2026

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How to make sure TikTok Local is turned off

The Local/Nearby feed relies on precise location access. If TikTok can’t access your GPS location, it can’t populate the feature.

Here’s how to check:

1. Check your phone’s location permissions. Go to your device’s Location Services settings and find TikTok. If TikTok isn’t listed, it doesn’t have location access and you won’t get the Local feed.

2. Set precise location to off. If TikTok does appear, make sure precise location access is switched off. When off, TikTok says it does not collect precise GPS data.

3. Use private or limited-audience posts. TikTok says content won’t appear in the Local feed if the account owner is under 18, the account is private, or the post privacy is set to Friends or Only You. So, even if others have the feature, your posts shouldn’t show locally under those settings.

TikTok says precise location access is off by default, but given many apps request permissions during use without explicitly asking, it’s worth double-checking if you’d rather not have your content pushed to nearby strangers.

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Featured image credit: Unsplash/Solen Feyissa