Data has become the all-important metric of our lives. It’s worth its weight in gold. Today, with an increasing focus on personalized services & interest-based advertising, it seems big tech giants now know more about us than we really want them to. Your smartphone is a spy that is giving away all your private information even when you don’t want it to. However, it does not have to be that way. So how to stop your phone from tracking you? More specifically, how do you stop others from tracking you through your mobile device?
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There are simple ways you can prevent your phone from being tracked & they include:
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Adjust the location settings on your phone
Your phone’s location settings automatically record your daily routine & report your “frequent location” Using this & how long you stay in a particular place, it’s even possible to track where you live, work & so on. However, it is possible to simply turn off this feature.
To do that your Apple device, click on ‘Setting’ & navigate to ‘Privacy’ where you will find ‘Location Services.’ Here, scroll down until you find ‘System Services’ & you will be able to see the logged record of frequent locations when you click on ‘Significant Locations’ you can clear this option using the ‘Clear History’. To turn this option off completely then deselect these significant locations.
Adjusting location settings this way might vary for Android devices & even differ from one to the other. However, in most cases, you also have to go to the ‘Settings’ & select ‘Location’ before tapping the ‘Google Location Settings’. Switch off the slider for both ‘Location History’ & ‘Location Reporting’ you can also clear the cache completely by tapping the “Delete Location History” button.
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Limit ad tracking
Another way how to stop your phone from tracking you…..ad tracking. However, it is possible to limit the ads that are been sent to your device even though it is impossible to completely put an end to it. You can reset your ad ID & also ‘unlink’ any targeted ads associated with your device. For iOS devices, the ‘Limit Ad Tracking’ button can be found under the ‘Advertising’ menu on the privacy settings page. For Android devices, you can turn on ‘Opt out of Ads Personalization’ located under the Ads menu on the Google settings place.
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Prevent Google from tracking your phone
Google services generally store location data even after you have adjusted your privacy settings as recommended above. But the good news is that you can also turn off this feature entirely too. When signed into your Google account, click on the ‘Personal info & Privacy’ section. You will find an option to ‘Manage Your Google Activity’ where you will see ‘Go To Activity Controls.’ You can then proceed to disable all the data that are being collected on your Google account.
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Check social media & other online accounts:
It is no longer news that your beloved social media accounts & other Online platforms are giant information banks. They are constantly collecting information about you in order to tailor the ads & posts that you see to your references. But thankfully, many of these platforms have dashboards to control your privacy. Just recently Google revamped their settings to allow you to better understand what information is collected about you & how to limit it. The same goes for Facebook which now allows you to turn off the behavioral tracking option if you want.
5. Other important precautions:
Still concerned about your privacy, other important precautions include:
- Using a private browser or browse incognito on your phone
- Opt out of ads
- Virtual assistants can be a loophole.
- Limit apps permissions
- Website cookies sell you out too
With every passing day, advancements in technology are making it harder to maintain privacy. However, with a combination of these simple tricks, you can keep your phone from getting tracked.
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