I've disabled GPS on my Android device, but there is no way to turn off all location tracking on a cell-based device. Google may still have a strong indication of location information based on IP data and cell tower geocoding databases, particularly in conjunction with known WiFi location maps.

But on the other side: you cannot turn off requests for location information to be requested repeatedly on browsers or devices. Firefox (my primary mobile browser) surfaces dialogs for this information repeatedly. Every last fucking update of Google Maps, until I deleted and disabled the application in frustration, demanded location information.

So you'll still be bombarded with requests, and you've only got to fuck up once for the direct link to be re-enabled.

And despite that, you can be tracked to within a fraction of a km, and often to within meters, by other means.

Yes, but I have two thoughts about that:

Defaults matter.

They still track what IP you connect from, and can correlate this to a physical address. I can connect to google and get search results tailored to my physical location, even if location services is not allowed for their site.

Perhaps. However, I'm in AZ, and the 'tailored search results' are usually the midwest or silicon valley.

I think it depends entirely on what your ISP is handing over for location data. Mine clearly doesn't hand over anything useful.

I did and I'm perfectly happy to miss what I'm missing.

BTW I'm still able to find myself on a map and look at what's around. Google Maps don't require location tracking for that.