Here are seven best tips to keep your phone and personal data as safe as possible.
Encrypt public Wi-Fi transmissions.
If you’re using Wi-Fi in a public place, anyone with packet sniffing software can eavesdrop on your transmissions to and from with the wireless router. That’s why it’s best to encrypt as many communications with websites as you can.
Not every online service offers encryption — for example, Facebook, Twitter and Gmail do, but Yahoo! Mail doesn’t. Going to websites with “https” in the address is good, but those sites don’t always encrypt everything you do.
There are several third-party apps available to provide firewalls and encryption (or both) to your smartphone for use on public Wi-Fi networks.
Enable remote ‘wiping’ of data.
Pressing a button on a website to restore your smartphone to its factory state, thus erasing all user data, is the single simplest way to make sure your information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands if your phone is lost or stolen.
First thing anyone should do when he or she loses a phone is to hit the remote-wipe button from a PC, especially if the phone is lost in a public place. It doesn’t take long to get to a public terminal in an airport or hotel.
All the major smartphone operating systems offer this feature
Don’t store passwords on the phone.
Accessing email accounts and social networks often relies on stored passwords, usually in a “keychain” file, which lets the various apps automatically log into those accounts.
Convenient as that may be, it’s better to simply not have the keychain file on your phone at all. The safest place for passwords is always in your head.
Avoid location “check-ins.”
Similarly, a lot of apps, such as Foursquare and Facebook, ask for constant updates of your physical location. Not that many apps really need that information. There is no reason to tell someone where you are when you’re ordering something online or streaming music. If you don’t want to tell the world that you’re not home, then disable this option.
Turn off geotagging, or turn off photo auto-uploads.
Many smartphone social-networking apps automatically upload photos to the Internet.Many phones embed location tags, also called “geotags,” right into the photo files themselves.
Anyone with the right software can look at your Facebook or Flickr photos and determine where you’ve been. If you’re auto-uploading images, it’ll tell them where you are at that very moment.
The geotagging feature can be turned off on most phones. If you’d rather keep the geotags, then turn off auto-uploading of photos instead.
Use a PIN code or pattern lock on your phone.
Most smartphones have an optional locking feature that requires a password or passcode to use the phone. Android phones also offer a “pattern lock” that allows you to create your own connect-the-dots diagram instead of a password.
Install anti-virus software, and keep it updated.
With the explosion of smartphone software came an explosion of smartphone malware. Anti-virus should be installed and keep updated to avoid these malwares.
