Looking for some privacy in this digital world? Tired of apps and services on our phones constantly tracking you? Or do you just want to learn how to stop your smartphone from being tracked? Then you’re on the right page. This article will walk you through six simple steps to reclaim your privacy and prevent your phone from being tracked.
Use a VPN
Using a VPN connection for your phone, especially while internet browsing, is an effective method to hinder the tracking of your device and online activities. What VPNs do involves directing your internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a server supervised by the VPN provider. Subsequently, the traffic emerges from the VPN server and proceeds to its intended online destination. This procedure safeguards your data against tracking and surveillance by concealing your IP address and encoding your traffic.
Put simply, using a VPN results in your connection being encrypted from your device to the VPN server. This server then accesses the internet to retrieve the desired content before delivering it back to you. Because of that, if anyone attempts to trace your online activities through your internet connection, all they would get is the location of your VPN server.
Be Cautious Of Your Apps
The majority of apps come equipped with an array of data trackers that diligently observe and trace your data and location. While some apps do this with the purpose of using this data to enhance your experience, others monetize it by sharing the data with advertisers to turn in more profit. Despite this, since your data migrates across various locations, the potential to trace you through your app usage remains significant. And unfortunately, this practice is legal, granted by your consent when agreeing to their terms and conditions.
To avoid this, its important to take a proactive approach. You have to assess the apps you download, the permissions you grant, and their behavior on your device. For a complete halt to app tracking, transitioning to web apps coupled with a VPN connection is likely your best course of action.
Turn Off Your Location.
Numerous applications and services installed on your smartphone enjoy unrestricted access to the device’s GPS tracker. And merely disabling your location via the notification panel doesn’t stop/prevent apps or services from obtaining your location information. This is because of the initial permission you granted these apps or services when you clicked “Allow Permission” upon launching an app for the first time. Alternatively, you may have consented to this access while agreeing to the terms and conditions of the app or service.
Here’s how to turn it off:
Android
- Open Settings
- Scroll down to Location
- Turn off location services.
iPhone
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Privacy
- Service of Location
- Toggle off location sharing
Use a Secure Messaging App
Conventional text messaging is susceptible to interception. Therefore, it may be best to opt for secure messaging platforms like Signal or WhatsApp, which implement end-to-end encryption to safeguard your messages to prevent your phone from being tracked.
Switch to Airplane Mode
Enabling Airplane mode deactivates the majority, if not all, of the radio systems within a smartphone. Consequently, your device discontinues the transmission of signals such as cellular and GPS signals, effectively blocking any attempts to track your device.
Use a Faraday Bag
A Faraday bag is a purpose-built pouch that prevents the infiltration of wireless signals. Since wireless signals are responsible for phone tracking, this bag serves to obstruct them, rendering your device untraceable. By evenly dispersing any incoming signal or radio wave, the bag thwarts tracking attempts.
In conclusion, with the advent of the internet and smartphones, it’s become harder to live a totally private life. But with the few tricks above you can at the very least get back some semblance of privacy.
