It’s the day after Christmas and the tech is buzzing all throughout your house.
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Privacy tip: Make sure you're not accidentally sharing your location with apps or people
Ever text a picture to an acquaintance or someone you just met? Depending on your phone and camera’s settings, you may have inadvertently sent where you live, too. This is what someone can see from just a photo.
One good thing about social media is that most platforms wipe out this data. Still, they’re exposing you in other ways. Here’s how to check everything Facebook collects.
Your devices and apps know where you are, too, but you can stop that.
Location, location, location
Your GPS app must know where you are to guide you to your destination. Your social media apps want to know where you are to serve you with more relevant ads. You can fiddle with these settings as needed but you must be thorough.
Say you turn off location tracking on your phone but don’t do the same with your laptop. It defeats the purpose.
Let’s start with your device and account settings.
Your Google account is tied to various apps and services, making it a great place to start.
Location History
Location History saves your location wherever you take your smartphone. It’s off by default, but you may have turned it on and forgotten about it. No problem. Here’s how to turn it off:
- Sign into your account at myaccount.google.com or through the Google app.
- Go to Data & privacy > Location History.
- Click Turn off and confirm your selection.
- While you’re here, make sure Auto-delete is On.
Your smart assistant is listening, but does that impact the ads you see?
Think of everything you do online and in real life that says something about who you are. Your likes, clicks, hobbies and activities all add to the wealth of data points companies already have on you.
What about your conversations with Alexa or Siri? How is that data used? Let’s take a deep look at how they use your conversations to create profiles.
In Zelle hell: One tech pro lost $1,600 using Zelle. Eventually, Wells Fargo credited him for the fishy charge. He agrees with lawmakers who say Zelle and banks are quick to blame victims for using it “wrong.”
Huge time-saver: Go straight to the recipe and skip the long story
All the buzzes, beeps, pop-ups, rings, dings and notifications built into our tech make it hard to focus. They’re built that way because it’s good for business when we’re addicted. Use these steps to quiet your notifications — and your mind.
It’s summer! Protect your tech from the heat
Tech is expensive, and there are endless ways to ruin yours. Scan this list of five ways you might be destroying your phone, laptop, tablet and TV.
While we’re talking money, I put together a list of tech freebies you can grab right now.
Digital detox: How to put your phone down this summer
The idea of a digital detox is nothing new. Heck, the phrase brings up 66.6 million Google Search results.
Speaking of Google, you should hide your address, phone number and any other private details that come up in a search. Get the simple steps to do that here.
AI jobs with mind-blowing paychecks of $375K a year
There’s no question that artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our lives. A bot that sounds almost human can author your emails, teach you a new language, book your trips or even be your friend. Check out direct links to try those out here.