Are you worried about your phone being tracked and looking for ideas to keep your phone safe from hackers?
As technology has advanced, people have started to spend more time online for various purposes. As a result, our phone stores all the confidential data such as passwords, bank details and many more. So, you need to be very careful about your sensitive data being exposed to the wrong hands.
Hence, here we’ve listed some possible methods to help how to make your phone impossible to track.
Why is Your Phone Being Tracked?
The GPS service or location technology of Smartphones is really an important thing that helps people to find addresses, gas stations, pharmacies, etc. Moreover, the location history offers personalized recommendations, traffic prediction, etc.
However, using the same location service, hackers can get information about your whereabouts. Your residential address, shopping habits, your family details like the information about your kids’ school–everything will be revealed.
Using the same information, hackers can sell those details or use your identity to commit crimes.
How to make your phone impossible to track?
There can be multiple ways to stop your phone from being tracked. Keep reading the following methods to make your phone untraceable.
Turn Off GPS (Location Services)
As it has been already mentioned how using location service, hackers can get information about you or your family members. So, turning off the location services or GPS can solve your purposes.
Here’s how you can turn it off on your Android or iOS devices.
On Android
- Open the App drawer on your phone and tap on Settings.
- Scroll down and tap on Location.
- Again, scroll down and tap the option Google Location Settings.
- For the next step, tap Location History or Location Reporting and turn off the slider.
- Go to the bottom of the screen and select Location History. Now, delete location cache from your Android phone.
- Repeat the same process for all Google accounts you have on the same phone.
On iPhone
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap Privacy.
- Select Location History on the next step.
- Find and tap on System Services after scrolling down a bit.
- Next, select Significant Location. Here, you can see all the logged records of your locations. Tap the slider off to turn off the location service.
- If you wish, you can also tap clear history in order to remove all the location-related data.
Turn off Bluetooth
The Bluetooth functionality on your phone can be used in order to track your phone in a short or limited distance, like a restaurant or store. Turning off Bluetooth can prevent hackers from recognizing your location.
Use Private Web Browsers
Laptops and computer users are already aware of private web browsers. However, such browsers are not too popular and allow users to search anything and everything on the web privately.
One such browser that you can use on your cell phone is Firefox Focus, a free application by Mozilla.
This application has a default setting that automatically stops ads, analytics and social trackers.
End of a user session, the application spontaneously removes the browsing history as well as the passwords.
Mobile versions of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge have also introduced incognito and private modes.
A third-party app like the Dolphin browser can also be used if you do not intend to have browsers in your phone that are associated with giant data brokers.
If you own a Samsung device, you can use its built-in browser.
This browser is specially designed to block ads and prevents different sites from tracking users’ online activities.
Browsing alternatives like Yippy and DuckDuckGo also don’t track the users as aggressively as Google.
Turn Airplane Mode on
Turning airplane mode on is a fantastic way to prevent your phone from being tracked. The airplane or flight mode doesn’t let your phone connect to any network. So, this can definitely help in making the phone impossible to track.
Control App Permissions
Each time you install an application from Google play store or built-in app stores, check for the required app permissions.
You will then receive a dropdown menu of permission requests on the device when you install the app.
If you are using an iOS device, you will receive permission access pop-ups every time a specific feature would require access to your gadget. Sometimes these applications ask for more information from the users than what is actually needed, and they send it to different companies for advertisement purposes.
This is why you should keep checking the app permissions on a regular basis. It not only gives more privacy control from getting the apps spied on but also helps to get rid of the unnecessary apps from running in the background that in turn helps improve the battery life of the gadgets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my phone be tracked if Location Services is off?
Yes, your phones can still be tracked even when you turn off the location services. This is because as your phone will be connected to a cellphone tower, your location can be tracked in the same.
Will removing SIM cards stop tracking?
No, removing SIM cards does not stop tracking, as the law enforcement administration can use your Google account to track your location. Even with the serial number of your phone, your phone can be tracked.