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.
This is especially true if you use the same username (or similar ones) across multiple sites, making it easy for others to track you down.
How to fix it:
- Create unique usernames for different platforms.
- Don’t reveal info like your real name or location in your username.
- Delete accounts and histories for forums you no longer use.
Photo metadata
Every time you snap a picture, your phone stores metadata. That includes details like the device you took it on, your camera settings and where you took it. This is also known as EXIF data.
Sending someone a picture you took at a public place? Not a huge deal. What about when you’ve sent picture after picture from the same location? Anyone who knows how to access this info now knows where you live (or work or hang out). Yikes.
Lucky for you, I’ve written about this before. Here’s how to protect your metadata.
Venmo
If you haven’t yet, you’ve got to lock down your Venmo transactions. A friend of mine who paid her therapist on Venmo realized the therapist’s Venmo profile basically provided a full, public roster of his clients!
Lock it up:
- Log in to Venmo and click Profile at the top right.
- Tap Settings, then Privacy.
- Select Private > More > Past Transactions.
- Click Change All to Private.
Crypto transactions
The blockchain was created as an open ledger, meaning all bitcoin transactions are open to the public by design. Your name isn’t public (just your wallet is), but the IRS has agents dedicated to connecting wallet users to names, and you can bet other organizations do, too.
Know better, do better
The internet is forever. You should assume there are traces of any info you’ve put out there somewhere — cached, archived or even screenshotted. The best protection is prevention.
When you download a new app, spend some time in its privacy settings to lock things down. Or just check back with me — I’ve got you covered.
We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.
Tags: Amazon, cryptocurrency, cybersecurity, forums, Google Maps, metadata, privacy, Profiles, reviews, Venmo
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