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<\/p>\nBeyond your keys, there\u2019s probably one thing you can\u2019t leave the house without. It always needs to be charged, topped up, and kept with you at all times: your phone.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s your wallet, your map, your communicator, your email, your music player, your camera, your menu, your mirror, your way to catch a ride, your research buddy, and more.<\/p>\n
Your phone is your way to connect with everything and the world in this day and age, and it is probably on your person or near it at all times of the day when you\u2019re clothed.<\/p>\n
But did you know that what you do on that device isn\u2019t always secure and isn\u2019t always private?<\/p>\n
Things are getting better, but there are scores of ways advertisers and marketers and websites can track what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n
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Everything wants in<\/p>\n
What makes your phone unique isn\u2019t just that it\u2019s your phone, but rather that it\u2019s reflective of your life. That\u2019s important and key to understanding privacy settings on the whole, because your life and your data are both unique to you.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about you. It\u2019s about the things you do, and it\u2019s probably stored on your phone.<\/p>\n
Whether entirely or partially, your phone acts as a source of truth specific to you, detailing information that\u2019s important to you and things you\u2019re planning to do.<\/p>\n
That sort of data is lucrative to companies who want it, and it can be sold or sent freely to people with little bits of code that monitor it for use later.<\/p>\n
It can include and reflect your location data and GPS information, your camera, microphone, calendar, call logs, contacts, health, and more. If external third party apps can take advantage of any information in your life gleaned from any of the features available on that device, you can bet someone will have a script, a cookie, or a part of an app keen to do just that.<\/p>\n
Every time you see something important on your phone and wholly relevant to you, that\u2019s sensitive data potentially built to be guarded. You probably won\u2019t realise it, but your phone sees sensitive information at lots of times throughout the day, from writing and reading and talking and listening.<\/p>\n
Whenever it does any of these things, the source of truth that is your phone is expanding what it knows.<\/p>\n
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For other apps, this data can be a treasure trove and gold mine of information. It can be used to market to you, to help develop products, and ultimately tell people and companies things that you mightn\u2019t have given them permission to take from you. It might even be used and send to the seemingly never-ending influx of scams<\/a>.<\/p>\n Think of it as telling lots of places about something that you were unaware of in the first place. Congratulations, you\u2019ve just signed up to be a rodeo clown, and your data is being fed to the bulls. Hooray for you.<\/p>\n It can be a mess, and is why privacy settings exist.<\/p>\n What privacy settings do<\/p>\n They\u2019ve changed a lot over the years, but these days, your phone not only acts as the holder of all this information, but also the safeguard of it, as well. Information is under lock and key, provided you\u2019re aware of what\u2019s being locked up and what the key says.<\/p>\n Found inside your phone\u2019s settings on both iOS and Android, you\u2019ll have a privacy dashboard that shows what apps are doing these things, and to turn them off. As in you can deny the access, disable the feature, and hopefully the app will work just the same.<\/p>\n Effectively the gatekeeper of the mobile world, privacy settings allow you to place a lasso and fence over the bulls that are excess trackers attempting to leave the rodeo of your life.<\/p>\n To illustrate this, imagine your phone simply being used as your phone. You use it as you normally would, but leave your privacy settings off.<\/p>\n Without any settings in play, you browse the web as per usual, and little bits of code designed to track your life arrive. They sit in the background, reading your details and source of truth, and transmitting them to the world.<\/p>\n You can stop them, but you have to know how.<\/p>\n Our example (above) shows what happens when you do just that. If you use your privacy settings, you can prevent third-party trackers from getting your data, essentially locking out unnecessary gunk.<\/p>\n There are some exceptions, however.<\/p>\n The operating system gets in the way<\/p>\n If you have an Android phone, your mobile might actually get in the way. Google can require some access for apps, and its trackers tend to be fairly useful for a complete mobile experience \u2014 location, movement, etc.<\/p>\n That being said, you might yearn for more control over your privacy. If that\u2019s the case, you have options.<\/p>\n Fans of Android may want to consider security-focused versions of Android instead, such as GrapheneOS<\/a> or \/e\/OS<\/a>, versions of Android that are essentially unwrapped from Google and focused on privacy.<\/p>\n They\u2019re a little more arduous to upgrade to, and you mightn\u2019t find it an easy install, but it can work.<\/p>\n
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