The short answer
Your employer cannot lawfully track your personal phone in secret. Tracking a work phone or a work app is generally allowed, but UK data protection law says they must tell you what they track and why, keep it proportionate, and not use it to monitor your private life. If you think you are being tracked without being told, you can ask your employer for the data they hold on you.
Not legal advice. This guide explains UK law in general terms, as at the date shown. The ICO’s guidance on monitoring workers was under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 when this was written — check the ICO for the current position, and take advice for your own circumstances.
Can your employer track your personal phone without permission?
Not secretly, and not without a good reason. Installing tracking on your own phone without your knowledge would be covert monitoring, which the ICO says is very unlikely to be justified at work — and accessing your phone or accounts without authorisation can also be a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
What is common, and generally lawful, is an employer asking you to install a work app on a phone (yours or theirs) that shares your location while you work. In that case you should have been told what it collects, when, and why.
Work phone vs personal phone
- Company phone: your employer has more scope to manage the device, but monitoring still has to be transparent and proportionate.
- Your own phone for work: any tracking should be limited to work time and work purposes. An app that tracks you around the clock on your personal phone is hard to justify.
How to know if your employer is tracking your location
- Check your contract, handbook and privacy notice. Monitoring should be described there.
- Look at the apps on the phone. Work apps, device-management profiles or anything you were asked to install.
- Check location permissions. On Android: Settings → Location → App location permissions shows which apps can use your location and when.
- Look for a persistent notification. On Android, apps that track continuously in the background generally show one.
- Ask. You can make a subject access request for the personal data your employer holds about you, including location data.
Can you refuse GPS tracking at work?
It depends. If tracking is lawful, proportionate and part of your job (for example a delivery driver on shift), refusing outright may become a conduct issue. But you have real rights:
- The right to be told what is tracked and why.
- The right to object where your employer relies on legitimate interests; they must then show compelling reasons that override your interests.
- The right of access to the data they hold on you.
- A reasonable expectation of privacy in your own time — tracking outside working hours is much harder for an employer to justify.
If you can’t resolve it with your employer, Acas and the ICO both offer guidance, and you can complain to the ICO.
What fair workplace tracking looks like
A fair set-up is visible and under your control: you know when it is on, you can see that it is running, and it isn’t tracking you in your own time. That is how TrackLink works — only the person holding the phone can switch tracking on or off, and a notification shows whenever it is running. (Employers are still responsible for using it lawfully.)
Common questions
Is it legal for my employer to track me without telling me?
Generally no. UK data protection law requires transparency; covert monitoring is only justifiable in narrow cases such as investigating suspected crime.
Can my employer track me after work?
Tracking outside working hours is very hard to justify. If a work app or vehicle tracks you in your own time, ask your employer why.
How do I get the location data my employer holds on me?
Make a subject access request in writing. Employers normally have one month to respond.