It may seem like just a phone, but your phone can give strangers major insight into your life. From your location to your photos to your personal banking information — and more — there are perfectly good reasons why you may find it worth your while to take a few minutes out and change an important privacy setting that can help protect your most sensitive information.
Location Settings
Your phone tracks where you go and where you’ve been. According to a New York Times article, there are a number of app (like Facebook) that collect your locations throughout the day and then share that information with advertisers so that they can better target ads to you and your needs.
There’s a way to limit your phone’s ability to track your location. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. The feature will likely be turned on. Scroll down and you’ll see all of the apps that have requested access to your location data — or that already have it.
There are some apps that — like weather and location apps — that simply can’t function without location services. For these types of apps, you can toggle to “While Using The App.” This change will ensure your location is kept private until you need the app to do its job. All other apps that have no good reason to know your location — like Facebook — can be changed to “Never” to protect your location and privacy.