10 Tips to Protect Your Phone Privacy
Privacy has been the hot topic of news coverage in recent years. This is because the increasing rate of theft and hacking tools which can gain access to your personal data without your permission. Without protective measures, your data can easily be misused and stolen and this is why every financial institution, health care centers and big organizations are very conscious about their privacy and take every precaution to keep their data protected.
Privacy issues related to cell phones have been the most attention gaining thing in the last few years. Few of the most highlighted reasons are:
• Strangers listening your conversation
• Hackers accessing your phone and stealing your data
• Hackers stealing the confidential information in your phone by gaining the access to your phone.
• Stealing of phone records; Blackmailing
The new reasons that are being taking place nowadays are GPS and Bluetooth. GPS (Global positioning system) chips are installed in every new smart phone to access the location of the person in emergencies but this can be harmful sometimes. By tracking information of the phone, it is feared that privacy will be vulnerable to those who would be profile callers. So experts suggest that you should know the mechanism of GPS that how Wi-Fi stores the data related to person location.
Another main reason is Bluetooth and it makes really easy to make your phone’s security breached. Experts say that a person sitting on laptop near you can steal all your personal information stored in the phone and can use your phone to call strangers without your knowledge. So it’s better not to keep your very important data on phone because of the risks involved.
Phone is like your home, your contacts, conversations, photos, videos, recording and calls; everything is personal which you do not want to share with anyone so you must protect your phone with proper safeguard. This article is also about the protection of your phone privacy. Above, you read about the importance of mobile privacy and the reasons causing security breach. Now, you will find some important tips to protect your mobile phone privacy.
Tips for Protecting Privacy
There are few tips to keep your privacy secured. Follow them and hopefully your data and personal information would be stored no matter what.
1- Keep your Phone Clean
Mobile devices operate on the software already installed in them. Software providers keep sending latest updates time to time with more security protections. This software installed on the phone should always be up-to-date because the more your device is up-to-date, the more is secured. So keep your all mobile phones updated including the web browsers, mobile security software and operating system.
2- Protect Personal Information
As mentioned above, phone is like a home. It is always filled with your important documents and other personal data like photos and videos and let’s not forget about the call logs and conversations. What if your phone gets stolen or lost? In this case, your personal information can be misused easily. Not only about you but also about others which are saved in your phone as contacts. So you must take security measures to protect your data.
• You need to protect your phone with a strong passcode to unlock. Don’t tell anyone about it.
• Before installing any app, it asks your permission to access your locations and social network. Review the privacy policy and get to know what data it can be accessed from your phone. In case of confusion, do not install.
• Keep your cell number to only the people you trust and avoid giving someone else’s number too if anyone asks for it. So you must be careful about all these things.
3- Connect with Care
Whenever you are online from unsecured network or proxies, be careful about the sites you visit.
• Keep your Wi-Fi hotspot password protected so that no one can access your network without your permission.
• Whenever you visit online banking site for money transfer and transactions, make sure the site is security enabled.
• Web addresses that start with ‘https: //’ are safe and it means they take extra security measures for protection. Web addresses that start with ‘Http: //’ are not safe at all
• Avoid giving your personal information to any unknown email.
4- Updates on WEB
Keep yourself updated on web and know about the latest updates for your device. Know how you can block unknown callers in case someone is harassing you. Using caller id you can easily block unknown and unwanted numbers to stop messaging and calling you.
5- Surf Safely
If you are using free Wi-Fi hotspot then avoid logging into accounts especially of social networking and bank because you never know the network you are using is safe or not so keep this in mind while using free Wi-Fi hot spot.
6- Avoid Sharing Memory cards
Whenever someone asks for your memory card for ANY reason, do not share because in few minutes, he can install any kind of virus in it and when you will plug it back in your phone, your data might get stolen. Also sometimes, your most of the personal data is in the memory card so the person whom you are giving it to can also copy the data in his phone and can misuse it later so keep these things in mind before doing any such thing.
7- Mobile Anti-Virus
Use effective mobile antivirus software in your phone because they can block malware attacks. They can also delete junk files on your phone which can be the cause for losing your personal data at times so antivirus is important in the phone.
8- Bluetooth
Keep your Bluetooth off because Bluetooth viruses can steal your personal information as most devices can penetrate the mobile phones through Bluetooth connection so always keep it off unless you needed it for some file transfer.
9- Un-necessary Apps
Avoid installing unwanted apps in your phone because every free app nowadays comes with ADS and these ADS can be a source of harm for you. Buy premium apps for your phone from Google store only because the paid apps are always free of ADS so they are perfectly safe for your phone.
10- Backup your phone
Keep your phone backed up. In case you lose your phone or your phone gets stolen, you will always have your personal data with you. So, backup your phone before it’s too late.
Now, by following the above mentioned privacy tips, you can enjoy your Phone anywhere.
Source: The full article for this was originally published here by WS_selena on Medium
