These apps are the biggest oversharers on your phone
I talk a lot about how most apps default to automatically sharing your data with advertisers and marketing companies. But some apps share your personal info with other people by default.
Yeah, no, thank you. Let’s end this today. Here are the most common app oversharers on your phone and how to get them to stop.
Google Maps and reviews
By default, any reviews you’ve left on Google — even just to give a restaurant five stars — are public and attached to your profile. When someone clicks on any of your reviews, they’ll be able to see all the other ones you’ve left. That’s basically a public record of where you’ve been (and when you hated the curry). No bueno.
Here’s how to turn off this sharing:
- Open the Google Maps app.
- Click your profile picture in the top right.
- Scroll to Settings and click Personal content.
- Under Profile Settings, slide the toggle off next to Show your posts on your profile.
You have an Amazon public profile
Did you know if you have an Amazon account, you have a public profile, too? Most people don’t have a clue this exists. Adding reviews to Amazon helps other shoppers, sure, but every review you’ve written is attached to your public profile.
The easiest fix? Hide your public profile (which, by the way, also shows your wish lists to the world).
- Log in to your Amazon account, hover over Account & Lists, and click on Account.
- Scroll to Ordering and Shopping Preferences and click Your Amazon profile.
- Click the link in the box that says Edit your profile. Click the Edit profile public visibility tab to continue.
- Click Hide all activity on your public profile.
Forums and comments
Most people who post in forums like Reddit or the comment section of websites use their usernames for privacy, not their real names — but usernames aren’t as private as you might think.
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