5 tips to make your smartphone as secure as possible and avoid data collection

Your mobile phone follows you everywhere on a daily basis. First thing you look at when you wake up, last when you go to bed, it constantly collects data about you. Your habits, your tastes, your movements. If you are not careful, it records your every activity and we are not always sure of the use of this information. Whether it's your internet searches that are listed in your history, your favorite music on YouTube, or the last pair of shoes that made you fall in love online: he knows everything. And for good reason, when you get a new phone or download apps, you don't think about disabling permissions. Yet we can and above all, we should, especially if we are tired of receiving targeted advertisements or being tracked. Here are 5 ways to limit data collection.

Disable geolocation

By default, geolocation is active on our smartphones and on all the applications that we download. If you sometimes receive notifications that ask you how you found your last visit to such and such a place, it is for this reason. Geolocation can be very handy if you misplace your phone. And again, on most devices there is a location option independent of this one. To deactivate it, simply go to the settings of your smartphone, tablet, Google account or applications to deactivate access to location. Not only does your phone work great without it, but your new cooking game doesn't need it to work either.

Create strong passwords

We will never stop repeating it: vary the passwords. Nobody does, it's annoying, we don't remember. But once someone gets their hands on one of your passwords, if you use the same one for 50 sites and platforms (including your email address and social accounts), all of them are vulnerable. It is therefore recommended to customize them to make access to your data more difficult. An increasingly popular method is to have a password generator create it for you. No more creating uppercase + lowercase + number + special character combinations with the name and date of birth of your deceased son or pet.

Delete unnecessary apps

5 astuces pour sécuriser au maximum son smartphone et éviter la collecte de données

Applications tend to accumulate on our smartphones. We download loads of them, open them once or twice, then never again. As long as there is no space problem, we tend to continue to keep them. Error. Even inactive (at least not used) they continue to collect our data. This is why it is recommended to uninstall all apps when you no longer need them. If you tell yourself that you will have to use them again, nothing will prevent you from downloading them again. Also remember to delete or request deletion if you had to create accounts to access it. History that your information does not wander ad vitam æternam on the web.

Control permissions

When you install a new app on your smartphone, it requires access to a number of permissions to work. The camera, the media and sometimes even the microphone. But why would a construction set need access to your microphone. This authorization is one of those that you should consider refusing in the settings when you download an application. You can do this directly from the store where you downloaded or purchased the application. You have access to it at all times and can change permissions at any time.

Use a VPN

Maybe a little extreme in fact, but if you really want optimal data protection, a VPN is the way to go. Especially if you have a lot of occupation-related activities that you wouldn't like to see leaked. This virtual private network encrypts all of your actions on your devices and protects them from theft and data collection carried out without your knowledge. It blurs the paths that lead to your IP address and makes it difficult for you to be traced. Be careful to choose a trusted one since your data is centralized on the server you select. Choose one that ensures that you do not keep any trace of your activities, for maximum security.