Can anyone ever really leave the internet? In the age of smartphones, where you are always online and logged in, the scope for privacy and security has vastly reduced. News of data breaches and private information leakage have become a mainstay in the headlines.
Recently, female celebrities were targeted in a mass scale attack when a vulnerability in iCloud led to the controversial leak of privacy violating pictures.
A few months ago, the Federal Trade Commission revealed that the so called self-destructing Snapchat images did not “disappear forever” and that some images were preserved without the user’s consent. They also collected and transmitted user data, which later theoretically allowed hackers to steal that data.
In February 2014, the famous online dating app Tinder was found to be exposing the location of users for some months since.
In an era of data breaches and celeb nude leaks, what is it that a smartphone user can do it to protect her privacy?
There are certain measures every person should take in order to keep their phone safe from theft. Today, applications play a very important role in our lives. However we should never download apps from an unknown source. Always download applications from official application stores like Play store or App store. Apps downloaded from unofficial sources are generally packaged with mobile malware that steals data. Even applications from official stores have no guarantee for safety, but it’s a good practice to follow.
Another major reason why it’s easy for hackers to get into our phones is because our phones are not protected by anti-virus. Many unofficial applications do contain malware or give easy access. Have an anti-malware app to protect your smartphone. These anti-virus apps do significantly well at detecting malicious apps and regularly scanning for threats. Refer to AV-TEST to find the perfect anti-malware app for your phone. It’s also important for everyone to understand the terms and conditions of any apps. We avoid reading the long scripts of permission pages and simply click yes for all. This can be harmful too. Permissions determine what data an app can access. Reviewing the permissions page before downloading an app can go a long way in keeping your phone free from malicious apps. For example, flashlight apps that access your messages or photo editing apps that need your location data are sure shot red flags.
Although we have achieved several heights in technology, the loop holes still persist. Because of advancing technology its highly important to secure our phones from being theft. Always double check your privacy settings on all social media mobile apps. The recent iCloud hack illustrated that, if nothing else, personal photos at least have no business in online cloud storage. Making sure the cloud sync option is turned off to ensure that your personal pictures do not store themselves in a remote server in a foreign country. We even tend to end up jail-breaking our phones to make use of the phone internationally but this method weakens the Android/iOS security framework. While rooting and jailbreaking may be tempting, they make phones easier to hack due to the escalated privileges now available to the user.
A strongly recommended read on online safety privacy for women is Violet Blue’s “The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy” (http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Girls-Guide-Privacy-ebook/dp/B00JBV3C6S)
While a level of 100% security can never be achieved, effective levels of security layers can be implemented in order to make breaches less likely or more difficult.
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