NUKE YOUR APPS!
Take a guess–how many apps do you have on your phone or tablet? Now, actually count them. Ask yourself, do I NEED all these apps? Can any be deleted? Try deleting a few you NEVER use or haven’t used in a long time.
This will free up some space and and resources on your phone it might even make your phone run a little bit faster.
DOES YOUR PHONE KNOW WHERE YOU’VE BEEN?
One of the most valuable types of personal data you leave behind is your location data. Your whereabouts can reveal a LOT about who you are, from your age to who your best friend is. Your apps can be tracking and recording your movements without you even knowing.
- Check your app settings to adjust location permissions if the app does NOT need to know where you are in order to function.
- You can also restrict the apps’ access to your contacts, camera, and microphone.
WHO DOES GOOGLE THINK YOU ARE?
When you use free services like Google, you’re constantly giving away your data to them. Google uses this info to build a profile of you to sell to advertisers.
- Go to myactivity.google.com > Sign in > Other Google activity > Google ad settings > Manage ad settings.
- Scroll down to see how ads are personalized for you. You can turn off ad profiling on the top of this page.
WHEN SHARING BECOMES REVEALING
Social media can be great for connecting to friends, but it’s also where we reveal a lot about ourselves to companies and people we might not know.
Try changing up your settings regarding contact syncing and when you sign up for a new app, use your email to register, NOT your social media account.
Instagram (Example)
Profile > Settings: Account > Contact Syncing > Turn off contact synching
