diff --git a/src/uu/ls/src/ls.rs b/src/uu/ls/src/ls.rs
index ba666d740..51dc0d247 100644
--- a/src/uu/ls/src/ls.rs
+++ b/src/uu/ls/src/ls.rs
@@ -1259,7 +1259,11 @@ impl PathData {
             None => OnceCell::new(),
         };
 
-        let security_context = get_security_context(config, &p_buf, must_dereference);
+        let security_context = if config.context {
+            get_security_context(config, &p_buf, must_dereference)
+        } else {
+            String::new()
+        };
 
         Self {
             md: OnceCell::new(),
@@ -2089,44 +2093,41 @@ fn display_symlink_count(metadata: &Metadata) -> String {
 
 // This returns the SELinux security context as UTF8 `String`.
 // In the long term this should be changed to `OsStr`, see discussions at #2621/#2656
-fn get_security_context(config: &Config, p_buf: &PathBuf, must_dereference: bool) -> String {
+#[allow(unused_variables)]
+fn get_security_context(config: &Config, p_buf: &Path, must_dereference: bool) -> String {
     let substitute_string = "?".to_string();
-    if config.context {
-        if config.selinux_supported {
-            #[cfg(feature = "selinux")]
-            {
-                match selinux::SecurityContext::of_path(p_buf, must_dereference, false) {
-                    Err(_r) => {
-                        // TODO: show the actual reason why it failed
-                        show_warning!("failed to get security context of: {}", p_buf.quote());
-                        substitute_string
-                    }
-                    Ok(None) => substitute_string,
-                    Ok(Some(context)) => {
-                        let mut context = context.as_bytes();
-                        if context.ends_with(&[0]) {
-                            // TODO: replace with `strip_prefix()` when MSRV >= 1.51
-                            context = &context[..context.len() - 1]
-                        };
-                        String::from_utf8(context.to_vec()).unwrap_or_else(|e| {
-                            show_warning!(
-                                "getting security context of: {}: {}",
-                                p_buf.quote(),
-                                e.to_string()
-                            );
-                            String::from_utf8_lossy(context).into_owned()
-                        })
-                    }
+    if config.selinux_supported {
+        #[cfg(feature = "selinux")]
+        {
+            match selinux::SecurityContext::of_path(p_buf, must_dereference, false) {
+                Err(_r) => {
+                    // TODO: show the actual reason why it failed
+                    show_warning!("failed to get security context of: {}", p_buf.quote());
+                    substitute_string
+                }
+                Ok(None) => substitute_string,
+                Ok(Some(context)) => {
+                    let mut context = context.as_bytes();
+                    if context.ends_with(&[0]) {
+                        // TODO: replace with `strip_prefix()` when MSRV >= 1.51
+                        context = &context[..context.len() - 1]
+                    };
+                    String::from_utf8(context.to_vec()).unwrap_or_else(|e| {
+                        show_warning!(
+                            "getting security context of: {}: {}",
+                            p_buf.quote(),
+                            e.to_string()
+                        );
+                        String::from_utf8_lossy(context).into_owned()
+                    })
                 }
             }
-            #[cfg(not(feature = "selinux"))]
-            {
-                substitute_string
-            }
-        } else {
+        }
+        #[cfg(not(feature = "selinux"))]
+        {
             substitute_string
         }
     } else {
-        String::new()
+        substitute_string
     }
 }