Lately, PowerPoint slides unveiled from NSA, National Security Agency and the British agencies have pointed out that many spy agencies have been spying and intercepting people’s personal data that gets sent through the faulty smartphone apps. There’s no doubt that there are many faulty and crappy apps! And it’s not just faulty apps, many famous apps such as Facebook, Angry Birds, Google Maps, Twitter and others are involved in it.
Additionally, obtrusive information such as a person’s marital status, religion and much more were easily transmitted through the ads placed in the smartphone apps (talk about privacy, eh!) Your personal data gets easily streamed through the unencrypted network, making it easy for the spying agencies to get vast amount of details about you. Though one must understand, that spying isn’t a new concept, nor it is an arduous work. Many security specialists have already suggested that the apps made for smartphone have a loophole, and they rarely care about the user’s personal information (something which might come as a shock to all smartphone users!).
To bring some peace to your mind, be clear that NSA isn’t interested in looking after everybody’s personal data. But just to be safe, lets see at the top 7 ways to prevent NSA from spying your smartphone.
7. Wanna Play Games? Use Flight Mode!
Majority of the smartphone game apps don’t require an active internet connection, only if the game is synchronized to your social networking website. Still its a matter of choice, and games don’t need to have an internet connection, but the ads running on it do! So if you switch your phone to flight mode, you will cut off the internet connection and this will block ads from popping up on your phone as you play game. Also, make sure when you’re switching to flight mode, your phone isn’t connected to WiFi, because if it is, then it reverses the purpose of cutting off the internet. Airplane mode will eventually also help you to play games more effortlessly, since the processor won’t be dealing with any ads.
6. Use A Secure Network To Post On Social Accounts
Don’t risk your identity and privacy by using a network that isn’t password protected or secure. Instead, make sure you use a protected network in order to post on your social networking websites. It’s best to browse your social media accounts from a laptop or PC, rather than doing so via your smartphone.
5. Use HTTPS
HTTPS, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a protocol for secure and protected communication over internet. So it makes sense to use HTTPS enabled websites, or you can use a browser plugin for the same in order to secure your online browsing. However, there isn’t any such plugin for smartphone, you can use websites which have HTTPS in it.
4. Turn Your Data Connections Off!
Use your smartphone’s data connection only when you’re in dire need! For instance, if you’re on a holiday and don’t really need to get regular updates from your email or chatting apps, then you can turn off the data connection. You can opt to go online when you find a password protected and safe WiFi network. Turning off your data connection will also improve the battery life as you’re on the go!
3. Try To Stay Smartphone Free!
This isn’t an easy job (yea, we know that!) but think of the year, when cellphones were just cellphones – to make calls, receive them and a wee bit of texting! Cut back to the present, a cell phone isn’t a cellphone anymore, its basically a small hand held PC that does more than what a normal PC or laptop would! So if you can, then try to stay smartphone free.
2. Turn Off GPS, WiFi & Other Services!
While GPS, WiFi and geolocation might turn out to be extremely useful when you’re lost, it is equally disturbing to know that these can be used to find out your location as well. These services are best used when you have no other option. If you have apps that make use of images or are capable of clicking photos, then turn off their geolocation. By switching off the geolocation, GPS and WiFi, you would basically burn all bridges through which hackers and spies would have barged in to steal your data.
1. Use a VPN Software
A VPN software (virtual private network) can be extremely beneficial while you connect to internet. It gives you an encrypted level of internet network, which secures and encodes all your data traffic that goes from your device to the VPN server. A VPN software won’t put a halt to the ads, or apps that collect your data, but it’ll definitely make it a strenuous job for hackers and spies to steal the data. You can download VPN apps such as eShield VPN for your device and stay sane while browsing internet!
These were the 7 best ways which will really make a difference to the way you browse internet, save your personal data, and most importantly prevent agencies like NSA from spying you!