Gerry's Tech Tip of the Month
GERRY HEBERT
NSA Warns iPhone And Android Users—Disable Location Tracking
One of the most helpful things our smartphones do is know where we are and where we’ve been. But apps we use then share that information with advertisers, and some of them have been hacked. And that data is now publicly available. So how can we protect ourselves? According to the NSA:
- “Apps should be given as few permissions as possible: Set privacy settings to ensure apps are not using or sharing location data… Location settings for such apps should be set to either not allow location data usage or, at most, allow location data usage only while using the app.
- Disable advertising permissions to the greatest extent possible: Set privacy settings to limit ad tracking… Reset the advertising ID for the device on a regular basis. At a minimum, this should be on a weekly basis.”