Protect Your Privacy on Your Devices
Protecting your privacy is of the utmost importance these days. Our phones are an extension of our lives, so we want to help you make informed decisions on limiting the amount of personal info you share through your device. Here are some tips to help.
AutoFill
While browsing on your phone, there's frequently a point at which you'll be inputting your data into a field to sign up for something, log in to a site, enter your payment info, etc. This can become tedious, and to save time, AutoFill saves your most commonly used info, giving you the option of automatically filling in these blank forms. While this is definitely convenient, it can also be a liability should access to your device become compromised.
To disable AutoFill on iOS:
- Tap the Settings icon
- Scroll to and tap on Safari
- Tap on AutoFill
- Disable the info in the categories you don't want to be saved in your device.
To disable AutoFill on Android:
- Tap on Settings
- Tap on Privacy
- Tap on Auto-fill from Google
- Toggle off Use Auto-fill with Google
Browsing
Most native browsers offer a Private/Incognito mode that prevents information such as your cookies, website data, browsing history, or form data from being saved on your device. This means your activity won’t be available to any other website or any person who might come into possession of your device.
Also consider using privacy-centric browsers such as:
DuckDuckGo
Brave
Onion Browser
and more
Disable Ad Tracking
Protect yourself from the prying eyes of algorithms that track everything you do online including every website you visit, forms you fill, items looked at and/or purchased, and more. Their goal is to build an advertiser profile to target ads that may be of interest to you.
To disable ad tracking on iOS:
- Tap on Settings
- Tap on Privacy & security
- Scroll to and tap on Apple Advertising
- Toggle off Personalized Ads
To disable ad tracking on Android:
- Tap on Settings
- Tap on Google and then tap on Ads
- Tap on Delete Advertising ID
*Note: certain Android devices may nest the setting as follows: Settings > Privacy > Ads > Delete Advertising ID
Location Services
Leaving your device's location services enabled can have the following effects:
The Good
- Help you find your phone should you lose it
- List the closest restaurants, banks, and other locations
- Quickly give you driving directions when you’re lost
The Bad
- Embed GPS coordinates into your pictures
- Let apps and advertisers track your location
- May use more battery
To disable location services on iOS:
- Tap on Settings
- Tap on Privacy
- Tap on Location Services
- Toggle off Location Services to disable it for all apps, or scroll down and limit access on a per-app basis
To disable location services on Android:
- Tap on Settings
- Tap on Location
- Toggle off Location Services to disable it for all apps, or scroll down and limit access on a per-app basis
*Note: an alternative to tapping on Settings is to swipe down from the top of the home screen to expose the notification shade and disable Location from quick settings.
Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
Do you use free public Wi-Fi on a semi or regular basis? These networks may lack proper security and can leave you vulnerable to theft of your data via interception by bad actors.
Consider using a VPN service. VPN's act like parallel networks that tunnel through public Wi-Fi networks (or any internet connection in general). They mask your data enabling you to browse safely.
To help you make an informed purchasing decision, we found some review blogs from top tech sites that rate various VPN services:
If you have any questions about privacy on your device, feel free to ask the community or reach out to us over at our Twitter/X or Facebook pages and we'll be there to help!
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