We often come across stories where people complain that their privacy is compromised through their mobile devices. Your mobile phone is part of your life. You are using it on a daily basis to get lots of work done. Hence, you have stored lots of personal and sensitive information on the mobile device. For example, a person who gains access to your mobile phone will be able to enter into all your social media accounts. Likewise, a person who gets hold of your mobile phone will even be able to get into your bank accounts and take control over them. That’s why you need to be extra careful about protecting the privacy of your mobile phone at all times.
Here are some useful tips that you can follow in order to protect privacy on your mobile phone.
- Always be selective with the apps
When you take a look at the situations where people complain that their privacy was compromised through the mobile phones, you will figure out that most of them are associated with fraudulent mobile apps. This is why it is important for you to be selective with the mobile apps that you are installing on the device. You need to make sure that you are not installing every application that you come across. Instead, you must ensure that the application is developed by a reputed developer.
Some of the Android mobile phone owners tend to get APK files from unknown developers installed. You are strongly encouraged not to do this. Make sure that you are downloading the apps that are officially available in the app stores, such as Google Play Store, Huawei Store and Apple app store. These online stores have taken necessary measures to make sure that all the apps available for download are properly regulated. Hence, your chances of encountering an app that compromises your privacy is minimized.
You should make it a habit to double check the credibility before you enter your personal information. It is a good idea to go through the privacy policy and understand how your information will be used. If you cannot find a privacy policy, you should look for an alternative application to get your work done.
- Use a strong passcode
This may sound like one of the obvious steps that any mobile phone owner should take. However, we still see how lots of people fail to do it. As a result, they end up with becoming victims of privacy leaks as well.
According to a recent study, it has been identified that around 64% of the mobile phone owners out there in the world are not using passcodes on their devices. If you are one of them, you should immediately go ahead and get a passcode. This simple step you take can deliver a great assistance to you with overcoming countless struggles that you may have to encounter in the future.
- Don’t click on links that look suspicious
While you are browsing the internet through your mobile device, you will come across suspicious links. You should never click on those suspicious links. That’s because clicking on those suspicious links can lead you towards getting your private information leaked to an external identity.
The possibility you have to click on suspicious links while you are using the mobile device to browse the internet is three times high when compared to the probability that you have to click on a suspicious link while browsing the internet through PC. You need to keep this fact in mind while you are accessing internet through the mobile device.
When you click on a suspicious link, it may ask you to enter your personal information. In such a situation, you should check why you are being asked to enter you r personal information. The link may look like something that is offered by your bank. Before you enter the information, you can double check with the bank and make sure that you are entering information on a legitimate URL. Otherwise, you will end up with giving your personal information to scammers.
- Have a remote wiping method
Have you ever imagined what would happen to information that you have stored in the phone, if it gets stolen or lost? In such a situation, you should have the ability to erase or wipe the information you have stored. Instead of waiting to lose your mobile, you should go ahead and get this kind of a wiping method installed on the device now. That’s because you never know when your mobile phone will get lost or stolen.
Along with that, it is also better if you can get a location tracking application installed as well. You can find a large number of apps like that. You can simply browse through the list of apps and get the best one out of them. Then you will be able to locate the device, if it is lost or stolen with ease.
- Keep all your software up to date
Last but not least, you need to make sure that you are keeping all the software in your mobile device up to date. When there is a vulnerability, you will be provided with a patch to it through an update. Some of the people afraid of getting updates, as they assume that the updates can create a negative impact on the performance or functionality delivered by the phone. You will never have to worry about such a thing from happening. That’s because the software updates are offered to you from the developer who developed your operating system.
The updates ae being pushed to you with a purpose. Therefore, you need to make sure that you are getting the updates installed in a timely manner.
Final words
People who do these things have a lower chance of becoming victims of privacy leaks through mobile devices. Therefore, you should go ahead and get these measures implemented straight away.