BBC - Future - The biggest myth about phone privacy
thomwithoutanh's bookmarks 2016-08-10
Summary:
The simplest solution is to go to the privacy settings of your smartphone, and choose which apps you either would or would not like to use data location services. By default, “Allow Location Access” will be turned on for each of your listed apps. You have the option to choose: Always, While Using, or Never. If necessary, you can also turn your data location services completely off, but this prevents you from enjoying the basic luxury your smartphone can offer you – maps.
As for social media you can privatise your accounts on apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so that only your friends can see your posts. On Facebook you can enable the, “Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline?” toggle so that nothing goes on your profile without your consent. Also, don’t forget to turn off geotagging, which is a small location pin that can be found on your status bar and within Instant Messenger that you can enable or disable at your will.
ate, time, geographical location, and smartphone serial number, are the items most likely to reveal your movements. Altogether known as metadata, or smartphone EXIP files, these fragments of information can be linked together to formulate your identity.
People see geotagging as being the most common threat, a feature many applications use to pinpoint and publicise your exact location. On Facebook, geotagging is offered as a service you automatically opt into whenever you post a status or chat on Instant Messenger – unless you disable it. Geotags also feature on other applications like Instagram and Twitter, and have been known to reveal people’s locations when they didn’t think anyone was watching.