Mobile Privacy: Improve the security of your information with these 5 tips

Have you ever had the feeling that your cell phone is spying on you? Suddenly you’re talking about dogs with a friend and your ads appear targeted by theme. So you visit a new restaurant and Google asks if you want to add a review. This has nothing to do with coincidence and, yes, cell phone privacy (or lack thereof). therefore, the it will help you to configure your device and apps to reduce this intrusion.

Disable location tracking

Many apps require access to your phone’s location, but you can turn this off in your privacy settings. That way, apps won’t be able to track where you are.

The quickest way to turn location on and off is via the quick menu:

1. Slide the screen down to expand the menu;
2. Look for the “Local” icon;
3. Tap once to disable location;
4. If you prefer, you can control which applications have accessed this information. To do this, touch and hold the icon to open the configuration window;
5. Finally, tap “See All” in the “Recent Access” field.

Turn off facial recognition

When a cell phone uses facial recognition technology, it collects facial data from the user and stores it in a database. This may include information such as facial measurements and unique features such as scars or birthmarks.

On the one hand, this data can be used for legitimate purposes, such as unlocking your mobile phone or logging into your digital account. But, on the other hand, they can be collected by third parties without your consent.

Currently, since we have no control over how the information from our faces is used, the best way to protect yourself is to disable facial recognition on your phone.

Enable data encryption

Encryption is a process that transforms data stored on a device into an encrypted format, making it more difficult to access without permission. This is especially important for protecting sensitive data such as passwords, financial information and personal data.

A tip to bring security to your data is to give preferences to operating systems that protect your data natively, such as Android and iOS.

Avoid automatic sync

Synchronizing messages, photos or videos from your mobile via cloud services is very convenient. However, this convenience reduces the privacy of the information stored on the cell phone.

Some apps that can use cloud storage are:

Since it is difficult to disable all applications with cloud storage, the safety advice is to evaluate two points: which ones synchronize automatically and which ones can be disabled. Thus, you will increase the privacy of the information stored on the mobile phone.

Do not use voice recognition

Many devices allow applications to use speech recognition. However, disabling this feature can increase privacy as your voice commands will not be stored and analyzed by third parties.

On Android, follow the step-by-step process to manage microphone access permission:

1. Access Settings;
2. Tap the “Security and privacy” field;
3. Now select “Privacy”;
4. Click on “Manage Permissions”;
5. Tap “Microphone” and see which apps are allowed to use the microphone;
6. To disable access, tap the app and select “Don’t allow”.

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Source: Olhar Digital