This simple Android location setting saves your privacy

Privacy is more important than ever. Beyond fraud and identity theft risks, access to your information could also impact personal safety.

Your phone doesn’t need your exact location at every given moment. It doesn’t need to know where you are unless you use a program like Google Maps.

Fortunately, one setting on your Android phone helps you take back some privacy. Keep reading for a simple way to cut down on location tracking.

Look up the apps that use your phone’s location

On your home screen, swipe down from the top.

  • Tap and hold the Location setting. If this isn’t immediately visible in your Quick Settings menu, tap on the pencil icon or the Settings cog and drag Location into Quick Settings.
  • From the Location menu, tap on App location permissions.
  • Choose an app. From here, you can choose from Allow all the time, Allow only while using the app, Ask every time and Don’t allow.
  • Alternatively, you may see the headings above when an app is allowed to use your location. Tap those to see which apps have that permission enabled.

Here’s what each permission means.

  • Allow all the time: Apps that can always access your location.
  • Allow only while using the app: Apps that use your location when they’re open and active.
  • Ask every time: Apps that can use your location only with authorization each time.
  • Not Allowed: Apps that cannot use your phone’s location for any purpose.

If you want to change an app’s permission, tap the app icon and set your preferred location access. This must be done individually for each app.

What we recommend

Your location feature is helpful in many situations. You don’t have to block it for every single app. Instead, you should be picky with which apps you allow location access.

This is what we recommend:

Continue reading

Stalkers are using AirTags — Here's how to protect yourself

Modern tech gadgets make stalking easier than before — which means you need to be aware of the many ways people can track you. One husband always knew where his wife went, down to her arrival and departure times, although she didn’t tell him the details. When she asked me for help, I told her he was probably tracking her through Google, which keeps a secret map of everywhere you’ve been.

Continue reading

⚠️ Traveling overseas? No bueno: There’s a terrifying new trend happening all over the globe: Kidnapping tourists for ransoms. A Venezuelan man, for instance, used a dating app to lure in three American tourists over a month-long stretch in the Dominican Republic. He’d arrange a date, pick up the person in his car, and then an accomplice would hop in to help him restrain his dates. All three victims were held at knifepoint and forced to call friends and family for money. So scary.

Built-in phone settings that could save your life

In these troubled times, when we’re dealing with a pandemic and protests compounded with the usual risks of accidents and crime, your smartphone can be your emergency notifier.

Sure, you know about AAA for your car. Tap or click here for a free app you can use to replace AAA.

Continue reading

8 must-have Android apps you'll use again and again

Although your mobile device comes pre-loaded with several essential applications like the flashlight and calculator, there’s some you could do without. Some contain bloatware that you should delete the minute you open up your Android for the first time because they bog down your system and track your browsing behavior and bombard you with ads.

Continue reading

Coronavirus safety: Comparing N95, surgical masks, respirators, cloth masks

For weeks, we’ve heard conflicting information on whether we should wear masks in public. Of course, anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 should stay home and wear a mask to protect those who are not ill. Caregivers for anyone with COVID-19 should also wear a mask. But what about everyone else?

Continue reading

One life-saving app for anyone who lives alone

The thermostat is always at a comfortable temperature. You can be as messy or as neat as you like. And you never have to share the remote! Living alone can be pretty awesome!

But it can also be a little bit scary. If there’s an emergency but you can’t reach your phone then how will you get help?

Continue reading