In today’s time and date, the smartphone has become one of the most precious possessions for almost everyone! I’m sure you use your phone so much that it has, in a way, become an extension of yourself! Much of your data, mostly the highly personal one, is out there on your phone. Losing your phone or this data in some way may be the most devastating thing for you, as you wouldn’t want your personal information to be accessible to someone!
With the growing technological advancement, where people’s lives have become easier, it has become vulnerable at the same time. It has made it possible for scammers to con you easily and get access to your private information. This has led people to lose their hard-earned money and get blackmailed by them quite badly!
So, what’s the solution?
Does using a phone always keep you in a constant state of insecurity of losing your data?
Well, not really!
There are many ways through which you can ramp up your phone’s security and make it a lot safer than before.
Some major steps that you need to take to strengthen your phone’s security are as follows:
1. Come up with a unique locking code
According to a few surveys, many people don’t put any effort into creating a unique locking code. Many elders opt for the most basic numeric code, which is either 1234 or ABCD. Or, they put their or their spouse’s name as the phone operating password.
Now think honestly, is it possible to keep your phone safe by putting up a basic code that almost anyone can guess?
Definitely not!
To ramp up your phone’s security, you need to start composing a password that no one can fathom.
Opting for an alphanumeric code is the way to go. Making a combination of letters, alphabets, signs, and characters will keep you safe from all kinds of foreign invasion.
If you have a phone that supports facial image lock, go for it! This is the most secure manner to keep your phone protected. No one would be able to open your phone without your permission if it’s only your phone that can unlock it!
2. Hide your notifications
You need to hide your notifications if you are generally a private person and hate it if someone gets a peek at your phone. This is completely possible in all kinds of phones, and it would help hide all your sensitive content that you don’t want anyone to see!
To hide your messages and texts on the notification, you need to change some settings on your phone. This simple method requires you to follow some steps, including;
- Go to the settings
- Open the notifications bar
- Open the lock screen notifications option
- Select the option ‘show but hide content.’
This way, you would be able to get notified when a new message comes, but the message’s content won’t be shown on the screen.
Rather, you would have to open the messages app to read the complete text or swipe down the full notifications to read it!
3. Get Rid Of All The Excessive Apps
Well, there is a great possibility that when you bought your phone, you were way too excited, and you ended up downloading every possible app that you could. Now that the excitement has settled down, you would realise that you don’t even use half of these apps.
So, what’s the point of having them on your phone?
Removing or uninstalling them is a good idea as it doesnt only help you free a lot of space and keeps you safe from your personal information becoming vulnerable. Flushing out all the unnecessary applications from your phone ensures that no hacker can get into your old and unused apps and infect your phone.
You will instantly see your phone performing way better than before when you remove the extra apps.
4. Restrict your app permissions
One of the most common forms of negligence that a phone owner showcases are permitting the apps to do whatever they want! This makes the entire phone vulnerable, causing a lot of harm in the future.
Android users tend to download way too many applications and let them access all the information their phone possesses. These third-party apps can access all the information of the windows that have been open on the phone for way too long.
According to the android app developers, applications cant access personal information as long as phone users doesnt allow them. When users explicitly permit them to read through the data, they can only do so. Hence, the casual clicking of ‘permit access to data’ can lead to dire issues later on.
The major problem? Once you have granted such permission, you cant undo it. The damage is already done. Hence, the need to uninstall unimportant apps has become mandatory now. Alongside this, the necessary apps that you cant do without should be revisited. You need to read all the app permissions to understand whether things are under control or not.
5. Browse safely
You definitely open your browser every two hours to check something out. In most android phones, chrome is the default browser. Hence, you must have been using it since you had bought your phone. This browser keeps you protected by warning you if you try to open a site that is a little dangerous. It detects a possible virus and gives you a signal.
Opt for the ‘enhanced safe browsing’ version of the software to make it even safer for yourself.
6. Two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication is associated more with google and less with android. However, it keeps your phone quite safe and protected if you utilise it. Any data you deem personal and sensitive should be kept double-locked, and this is exactly what this security measure does!
To turn this security system on, you need to take a few steps, for instance;
- Open the google tab of your phone
- Navigate to ‘manage your google account.’
- On the top row, opt for the ‘security’ tab.
- Select the ‘2-step verification’ choice
Though it may be a little inconvenient for you to get the phone or app opened by un-locking it twice, it would surely keep your data out of the reach of others!
Conclusion
With technological advancement, hackers and scammers have also gotten quite modernised. With a single strand of information, they can now get into your gadget and perform nefarious acts for their advantage. Therefore, it is time to take all the necessary actions to keep your phone and the data stored in it safe and highly protected!
Consider a few of the tips mentioned above and ramp up your phone’s security NOW!