Your phone determines its position by combining signals broadcast by navigation satellites (Galileo or others), which only transmit the signal to your phone and your phone is not designed to send back to these navigation satellites any information computed by your phone, such as your position hence Galileo does not track your device.

However, apps on your phone like ridesharing or mapping services and many others of various nature may share your location with application providers via the internet.

Only emergency beacons can send location data to Galileo satellites (purposefully).

Chipset and receiver manufacturers are already equipping their devices with multi-constellation capabilities, including Galileo, and taking advantage of all available services.

Since 2016, Galileo Open Service, Search and Rescue and Public Regulated Service are being delivered in their initial configuration and users around the world with Galileo enabled devices are being guided with positioning, navigation and timing information provided by Galileo. In parallel, the full infrastructure and system are being deployed, continuously improving the performance of the service and the robustness of the system. 

Technical updates of the Galileo SDDs, integrating the benefits from the subsequent system infrastructure releases are published regularly.

With the declaration of Galileo HAS Initial Service on 24 January 2023, users within the service area can achieve improved user positioning performance in real-time by exploiting the HAS data delivered in the Galileo E6-B signal component and via internet.

Click here to find out if your device is Galileo-enabled.

All official programme documentation related to Galileo is published in the programme reference documentation section on the GSC website.

Signal Authentication service (SAS) is understood as the ability to provide a level of guarantee to users regarding the use of signals and data from actual Galileo satellites and not from any other source. This capacity will increase the degree of trust on the services based on Galileo positioning and prevent spoofing of Galileo signals, which may lead to committing fraud. The purpose of this service is to satisfy the demand of GNSS users and applications of a trusted navigation solution provided by GNSS systems.

GNSS authentication is achieved by incorporating specific features that cannot be predicted or forged by malicious actors in the broadcast signals. A receiver enabled for authentication can interpret these features to distinguish genuine signals from imitations. This can be done at two complementary levels: at the data level, to authenticate the broadcast navigation messages; and at the range level, to authenticate the measured ranges to the satellites. The combination of both data and range authentication allows the computation of an authenticated PVT solution. OSNMA service provides authentication at data level.

OSNMA will be complemented by the Signal Authentication Service (SAS), which will offer range authentication in the E6 frequency band. The OSNMA bits, which are partially unpredictable, can be also exploited by receivers to provide some level of protection at the range level.

OSNMA data, in the current system implementation, is generated on ground. The European GNSS Service Centre (GSC), part of the European GNSS infrastructure, plays a central role in the provision of the Galileo OSNMA as it hosts the OSNMA module in charge of generating the necessary elements to perform the authentication of the Navigation Messages. The OSNMA data generated on ground is uplinked to the Galileo space segment for broadcasting. No retrofitting is needed on the Galileo satellites currently deployed in orbit for the provision of the OSNMA service.

Galileo Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) is a free authentication service, available worldwide to allow users to verify whether the navigation message is received by a genuine Galileo satellite. Authentication information is provided through the E1-B component.

The Galileo Emergency Warning Satellite Service (EWSS) swiftly broadcasts alerts globally, allowing national  civil protection authorities to directly transmit to smartphones (or any Galileo-enabled devices) for enhanced emergency response and resilient risk management.

The High Accuracy Service (HAS) is a free high-accuracy positioning service for applications requiring higher accuracy than that offered by the Galileo Open Service. The Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS) provides precise corrections in the Galileo E6-B data component as well as by terrestrial means so Galileo and GPS (single and multi-frequency) can achieve real-time improved user positioning performances (positioning error of less than two decimetres in nominal conditions).

Learn more on Galileo Services   For more FAQs on HAS, click here