I have decided to run things in parallel. For example, cybersecurity and privacy go hand in hand, so I will also cover personal privacy. Today I want to talk about phones and what more we can do as consumers to protect ourselves. I am not going to dwell on the privacy topic itself. If you want to learn more about it, here is a good primer.

Android or iOS

A phone is a fundamental tool for all of us. We spend a significant portion of our time communicating with people, buying things, and browsing. Unfortunately, all our interactions with the phone are monitored and sold for the highest bidder. Data is the new oil, and many companies are making big profits from your data.

It’s up to you to decide if you agree with such practices. However, it’s tough to achieve any privacy on an Android or iOS phone. With Android, OS Google collects your data, and if you have a skin on top of it, the third party collects it. With Apple devices, all data goes to Apple.

To give some credit. Google tries to introduce more and more privacy controls on its Android systems. However, it always backfires, and it seems like privacy settings are the illusion of control. Just read this story.

For example, Apple at least fought with USA government recently. They ran a campaign on privacy. They introduced the App Tracking Transparency feature that will cost Facebook $10 billion in revenue hit this year. 

I am not a fan of Apple, but I lean more towards Apple devices as a consumer. Of course, if I want to go extreme, I can always install GrapheneOS, but Apple is the best choice for my privacy needs, so I highly recommend buying Apple. 

Making iPhone more private

As soon as I turned iPhone for the first time, I chose not to use Touch ID. Sometimes it’s a bit inconvenient. I have to type passcode quickly, which becomes a problem with big fingers. Why? It’s safer. If somebody physically tries to force you to unlock it, it isn’t going to happen. And with stress, it’s more likely that you will destroy your data by not remembering your passcode typing the wrong passcode, which will react to the attempt limit.

Turn off Location Services

Choose passcode

If you don’t need it, turn it off. It will save your battery energy and give you more privacy.

Tracking

Allow Apps to Request to Track is turned off on my phone by default. This is a new feature that Apple released on its mobile system. You can block individual apps or all of them.

Apple Advertising

Personalised Ads disabled by default. Limits Apple’s ability to deliver relevant ads.

Analytics and Improvements

Share iPhone Analytics disabled by default. However, if you want to help Apple improve its products, you can enable it.

Don’t use iCloud

If privacy is essential, you can choose not to upload data to iCloud. For example, I decided not to keep my photos on iCloud because I wanted more control over my images. You can determine what gets uploaded individually.

Conclusion

These are just a few tips for increasing privacy on your iPhone. Unfortunately, I haven’t covered notification display and probably missed other features. However, better privacy is not a destination but a journey. I hope this article helps with that. Next week I will cover apps that offer better privacy on your iPhone.