Most of the phones don't have enough memory so they don't actually store the maps on the unit like a GPS nav unit. They have to connect into a network (via phone data or wifi) in order to download the map. So it is possible that your location information might be uploaded at that point.
Apparently there is map software that can be loaded on your phone like an app and then the phone could be a standalone GPS nav system.
Many, many years ago (around 1990) there existted hacker software which could find any mobile based on tower handshakes, and basically the handshake was as long as the phone had power. No GPS involved.