5 Android Phone Settings That Protect Your Privacy From Other Users
We often tend to overlook privacy settings on our smartphones. However, this can be risky—people could read your texts or even copy your files. There are tons of settings buried within our smartphones and tablets that can help us better control how we protect our devices and personal information.
Whether you’re spending time at home with friends or out in public, here are five settings that will help keep your privacy in check.
1. Disable Notification Previews
Notifications are a great way to stay updated, but they can also be a privacy risk. If you’re uncomfortable about people viewing incoming alerts when they’re using your phone, consider disabling notification previews that show up on your home screen from time to time.
While the actual settings may vary across devices, we show you how to do this using a Samsung device:
Alternatively, theDo Not Disturb modecan also be a helpful addition when you don’t want to be continuously interrupted by alerts or annoying calls or texts. To enable this feature:
2. Use the Screen Pinning Feature
One way to keep your phone secure is to use the screen pinning feature, which allows you to lock your phone so that only a single app will be accessible at a time. We have used a Samsung Galaxy device for this guide:
3. Set Up Guest Profiles and Use Incognito Mode
If someone else has access to your phone, they can do more than just read your texts—they can also access other websites or applications that may have private information about you.
To avoid this, you canset up a guest profile on your smartphone. This is a great way to keep your data safe by restricting third-party access to sensitive information on your phone.
you could evenuse an incognito modeon popular browsers or consider using asecure private browserthat doesn’t log your online activity. You could even use aVPNto encrypt all your data.
4. Hide or Lock Away Sensitive Information
You might not like the idea of friends or family having access to all of your apps when they’re using your phone. Consider “hiding” sensitive applications from your app drawer (such as messaging apps) by making use of the default settings on your device, if available.
Some apps (like banking apps) have built-in lock features, but you might want a bit of added security while handing over your phone to others. There are several ways tohide apps on your Android device. To hide apps on a Samsung Galaxy device, follow the steps below:
In case there’s no such feature available, consider using free third-party apps such asMicrosoft LauncherorNovato keep people out of your stuff.
Depending on your Samsung device’s model, you could evenuse the Secure Folder featureto lock away apps or folders. You can always disable location permissions for all apps, except when you’re actively using them—like a banking app or ridesharing app.
5. Disable Bluetooth or Network Connections
Your smartphone’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi/mobile network connections certainly allow you to transfer files between devices with ease—but that also means that anyone using the same network and within range of your phone might be able to access your information easily.
To keep your information safe from these kinds of threats, make sure to turn off these settings, all the more so if you’re with friends or in public places where there might be other users around (such as in an airport).
To disable these features, go toSettings>Connections>Mobile hotspot and tethering, and toggle off the slider buttons for each of these settings.
Keep Your Device Private
We hope it’s possible to use these helpful settings to keep your personal folders and files or other information private. While it may not be helpful to lock down every feature on your device, the suggestions above can help make your phone less intrusive while using it in public or even restrict other users from prying.
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