AT&T, T-Mobile & Verizon mobile apps all collect personal data to sell ads, but here’s how you can protect yourself

Imagine a smartphone without basic social media applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook. For social media freaks, that phone would be considered useless. Let’s face the truth: smartphones are almost worth nothing without applications. Well, unless you only want to make phone calls with it.

However, users cannot afford to lose much of our personal information in an attempt to have fun while using these apps. So, how do we protect our information?

Simple:

Use a Decentralized VPN When Using a Public Wi-Fi.

Experts advise us to make use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) anytime we switch our mobile data for a public Wi-Fi. This is a method of preventing people, as well as applications -making use of the same Wi-Fi as we- from lurking around our private information.

I once failed to use a VPN while using a public network. This lead to an indeed painful experience of me selling my iPhone. In case you want to sell your used iPhone, check out swiftTechBuy.

VPNs also allow you mask your data transmission and avoid filtering and censorship of information on the internet; giving you access to a wider variety of information on the net.

Get a Comprehensive Password Manager

Passwords are sure ways of keeping our private data out of the reach of hackers. However, not just any password; you need strong passwords. The strongest passwords you could use are random string characters- an irregular combination of letters, numbers and symbols. These passwords are usually harder for hacker apps to crack. However, the problem is the hard time you might face when trying to remember these passwords.

This is where password managers become handy. While apps like Google Chrome might offer to help save passwords, experts recommend us to get a strong passwords manager which does not only generate us hard-to-crack passwords, but also saves the day when we find it hard to remember them.

Don’t Use The Same Password For Your Mobile Apps

Many of us make this deadly mistake, not that it is bad, but know that when one of your apps is compromised, others aren’t exempt.

It is advisable to use different strong passwords for each of your confidential applications; especially your social media apps.

In Conclusion

Be mindful of carrier mobile app permissions. Be sure to double-check the permissions apps ask for before acceptance.

Decline permissions that are not required for the apps functioning. For instance, why would a pocket calculator ask for access to your contact list? In conclusion, app permissions and passwords vary, thus remember to be careful.