A user of a device desires that geographic position information of the device be kept private. A network may track a geographic position of a device using timing advance (TA) data and also a passive attacker may attempt to track the geographic position of the device by observing base station TA commands. In embodiments provided herein, a device diminishes or obfuscates geographic position information by using a timing change value while not disturbing synchronization of uplink signals from multiple devices arriving at a base station. To resist an averaging solution by an observer, the device in some embodiments adjusts the timing change value based on an internal timer. In an emergency call situation, the method permits the base station to obtain geographic position information based on TA procedures.