Protect Your Privacy on Your Devices
Protect Your Privacy on Your Devices Protecting your privacy is of the utmost importance. 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 To save time, AutoFill saves your most commonly used info (banking/credit card info, passwords, contact information, etc.) and gives you the option to automatically fill 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 Android iOS Brave - Private Web Browser Android iOS Onion Browser iOS 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: CNET Tom’s Guide Techradar If you have any questions about privacy on your device, feel free to ask the community or reach out to us over at our Facebook page and we'll be there to help! FR versionWi-Fi Assist
Wi-Fi Assist Wi-Fi Assist is a feature that optimizes the handoff between a Wi-Fi network and your carrier's cellular data network. In the past, when your device left the effective range of a Wi-Fi network, it would try to maintain connection to that network as long as it could, even when the network's signal became too weak to be effective. Then, you'd have two choices: either turn Wi-Fi off or wait until your device was completely out of range and it would switch over to the cellular data network. How does Wi-Fi Assist work? Wi-Fi Assist regularly checks your device's Wi-Fi connection to determine signal strength. If the Wi-Fi signal performance drops, Wi-Fi Assist automatically switches to a cellular data connection until the Wi-Fi signal improves. By doing so, the handoff between your Wi-Fi and cellular data connections would be automatic and smooth. How can Wi-Fi Assist impact me? As this feature may increase the amount of time spent on the cellular data network, there is potential for higher data usage, and the Wi-Fi signal may disconnect more frequently if your device's Wi-Fi connection drops below a specific strength. How to turn Wi-Fi Assist ON or OFF Wi-Fi Assist is usually turned on by default. Once enabled, it operates in the background automatically. You can turn it on or off anytime by following these steps: Apple/iOS 1. Tap Settings. 2. Tap Cellular. 3. Scroll down to find the Wi-Fi Assist toggle. 4. Tap to turn the feature ON or OFF. Android 1. Go to your Start screen and swipe up or down to open the menu. 2. Tap Settings. 3. Tap Connections. 4. Tap Wi-Fi. 5. Tap to enable Wi-Fi. 6. Choose the Options symbol and select Advanced. 7. Tap to disable Switch to mobile data. Important Notes Wi-Fi Assist does not activate for some third-party apps that might use large amounts of data. For example, apps with audio or video streaming functionality, or email apps with features such as attachment downloads. If you are data roaming outside of Canada, Wi-Fi Assist will not automatically switch to a cellular data connection. For device specific data management tips, you can also check out our articles for iOS and Android. Version FR
