![\"Mobile](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763829610_946_0x0.jpg\")
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How to track your phone.<\/p>\n
Getty<\/p>\n
Updated Nov. 22 with a new study into app tracking and a \u201cdo not tap\u201d warning. <\/p>\n
You are being tracked \u2014 and not in an open and transparent way you can stop. Your smartphone has a unique fingerprint you can\u2019t fully hide, and this can be secretly harvested without you ever knowing. It\u2019s happening right now. If you want to know what this hidden tracking looks like \u2014 you can see for yourself with just one click.<\/p>\n
Online anonymity and privacy is a big thing right now. It has hit the headlines given recent bans on porn access and mandates for identity and age verification<\/a>. Those headlines are being fueled by legislators reversing years of privacy upgrades with a push to monitor messages and online activity, to check who you are and what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n Cue the dirty little secret that is device fingerprinting. You might think because you have disabled tracking cookies and enabled private browsing that you\u2019re safe. You\u2019re wrong. Your phone gives away a trail of unrelated data points. Each on its own is harmless, but combine enough of them and your phone is unique.<\/p>\n ForbesHas Samsung Installed \u2018Unremovable Israeli Spyware\u2019 On Your Phone?By Zak Doffman<\/a><\/p>\n You can be tracked and profiled. Online activity linked to a device. And it takes just one identifiable activity to link the device to a you, to de-anonymize that profile.<\/p>\n Digital fingerprinting made its own headlines earlier this year, when Google reversed its ban<\/a> on the practice. And this invasive tracking has now extended beyonds browsers to cover smart devices as well \u2014 your TVs or gaming consoles, for example.<\/p>\n While you can\u2019t stop fingerprinting, you can make it more difficult for trackers to pull all the data they want. Apple\u2019s Safari<\/a> and Mozilla\u2019s Firefox<\/a> have new anti-fingerprinting technologies that are now deployed by default. And while a VPN will not stop your device giving up a range of signals, it will block some of these.<\/p>\n Does this mean every website tracks you? No. But many do. And as Mozilla<\/a> warns, \u201cfingerprinters can continuously identify you invisibly, allowing bad actors to track you without your knowledge or consent. Online fingerprinting is able to track you for months, even when you use any browser\u2019s private browsing mode.\u201d<\/p>\n If you want to see how pervasive this is, check your own digital fingerprint right now. You can use EFF\u2019s Cover Your Tracks<\/a>. Click \u201cTest Your Browser.\u201d Ideally you\u2019ll be told \u201cyour browser fingerprint has been randomized,\u201d and that \u201calthough sophisticated adversaries may still be able to track you to some extent, randomization provides a very strong protection against tracking companies trying to fingerprint your browser.\u201d<\/p>\n But you may not. You may be told \u201cyour browser fingerprint appears to be unique” among those tested, and that \u201cwe estimate that your browser has a fingerprint that conveys at least [x] bits of identifying information.”<\/p>\n The first notification came through Safari, the second through Chrome. A material percentage of websites deploy this tracking. If your device can be secretly tracked, it is being secretly tracked. It\u2019s as simple as that.<\/p>\n You can also use the \u201cAm I Unique<\/a>\u201d website to pull dozens of data signals from your device. Just click \u201cSee My Fingerprint.\u201d You can run this using different browsers, using VPNs, even using private browsing . This test does not focus on randomized data and will show you as unique. It\u2019s detailed display of the expansive data pulled is notable. <\/p>\n You can easily rationalize how these dozens of signals will differ from other phones. Your phone is being tracked to some extent \u2014 you can\u2019t stop it but you can reduce it. Whether or not you do so will depend on the extent to which you value your privacy.<\/p>\n This issue extends beyond browser fingerprinting. Google has been under fire for its all-seeing Play Services ecosystem. As one report<\/a> warns, \u201cevery Android user has used the Google Play Store at some point, but what you might not know is that the Play Store app has a background service that is constantly running in the background. This background process is called \u2018Google Play Services\u2019, and it has access to everything on your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n That invisible tracking extends beyond the stock apps and frameworks powering your phone. The third-party apps you install are riddled with invasive behaviors. A new study<\/a> draws some alarming conclusions, with \u201cGoogle Play Store\u2019s privacy sections often leaving people scratching their heads,\u201d Help Net Security<\/a> explains.<\/p>\n If you use Safari on your iPhone, it\u2019s almost certain that Google is your default search engine. Settings > Apps > Safari > Search Engine. That means that Apple\u2019s fairly privacy-centric browser returns a Google generated web page when you search.<\/p>\n