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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">How to quickly limit location tracking, smart speaker recordings, and other data collection</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Keeping up with digital privacy and security is a bit like getting regular oil changes for your car—it’s maintenance to safeguard your online life.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">But fixing every privacy and security challenge at the same time would be daunting. Another approach is to take the following bite-sized steps, which you can knock out in less than a minute.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">It’s an easy way to feel productive on a lazy afternoon. These tips will limit the way products and services snoop on us, feeding our personal data to big companies for targeted advertising and other uses.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Privacy isn’t just about avoiding targeted ads that you find annoying. The information tech companies gather can potentially affect important aspects in our lives in ways we can’t anticipate. The techniques on this list aren’t a cure-all, but they can make a big difference.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">These tips will help with innocuous-seeming products including your favorite smartphone games, the mobile app that gives you a weather forecast, and the apps that help you share photos with friends. All have the ability to reveal details about your life to companies looking to collect, share, and make money on consumer data.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Once you build some momentum with these quick tips, you can go even further with a personalized action plan.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Meanwhile, here are some simple ways for anyone to get started.</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Limit GPS Tracking</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">The apps on your smartphone don’t need to know where you are at all times, especially when you’re not looking for a traffic report, weather forecast, or dining spot.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Here’s how to limit access to your phone’s GPS data. (Apps may still use WiFi signals and other clues to infer your location, but the data is typically less precise.) While you’re at it, you can use these settings to control access to your contacts and photo library, too. Once you follow these steps, we have an even more thorough guide to protecting location data with more important details.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size"><strong>On an iPhone:</strong>&nbsp;Go to Settings &gt; Privacy &gt; Location Services. Tap on each app individually to control which ones get access “always,” “never,” or “while [you’re] using” the app.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size"><strong>On an Android phone:</strong>&nbsp;Go to Settings &gt; Location &gt; App location permissions. You can toggle location off altogether, or choose when, if ever, individual apps can access location. (The instructions may vary depending on which kind of Android device you have, but the steps are usually similar.)</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Stop Your Apps From Tracking You</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Apps can collect a lot more sensitive information than you might realize, and many of them share and exchange that data with other companies, such as Facebook and Google, for targeted advertising and other business purposes. This extends from simple games to very personal apps such as period trackers. However, you can use your phone’s privacy settings to help put a stop to it.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Let’s start with Apple users. Starting with iPhone operating system version iOS 14.5, you have the option to tell apps not to track you.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">As you use iPhone apps, some will prompt you for permission to do tracking. Say no, and Apple throws up a technical barrier that prevents the app from collecting a special ID number used for targeted advertising. Apple policy says that if the apps try to then track you in other ways, they could get banned from the app store.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">You can wait to see those prompts—or you can be proactive and tell your phone to say no automatically.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Android users have a similar consumer protection, but it’s not as powerful. You can tell your Android phone not to share its special advertising ID number. However, apps are allowed to keep tracking you using other methods.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size"><strong>On an iPhone:</strong>&nbsp;Go to Settings &gt; Privacy &gt; Tracking. Switch off the toggle for “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size"><strong>On an Android phone:</strong>&nbsp;Go to Settings &gt; Privacy &gt; Advanced &gt; Ads &gt; Delete advertising ID. (These instructions are for a Google Pixel. The steps may vary depending on which kind of Android phone you have, but they should be similar. On some devices, you may have an “Opt out of Ads Personalization” setting instead.)</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Delete Alexa Recordings</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Amazon, Apple, and Google have at times had humans review bits of dialogue recorded by their smart speakers to improve their voice computing technology. Some people feel like that’s a privacy intrusion.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">To delete select recordings and place limits on the use of such data, you can dip into the privacy settings on your smart speaker’s mobile app. (For help with that, click on the link above.)</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Amazon made things slightly easier with two newer voice commands: “Alexa, delete what I just said” and “Alexa, delete everything I said today.” Before you can use the feature, you have to activate it.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size"><strong>On the Alexa app:</strong>&nbsp;Tap the three-bar menu icon and choose Settings &gt; Alexa Privacy &gt; Manage Your Alexa Data. Flip the toggle switch to enable deletion by voice.</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Strip Location Data From Your Photos</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">When you take a snapshot with your digital camera, including the one on your smartphone, the device captures data about where, when, and how the image was recorded.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">And when you share that picture with someone else, that information, called Exif data, typically goes along for the ride. That’s how mobile apps and storage services, such as Google Photos and iCloud Photos, know how to sort your Springsteen summer tour pictures by place and date.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">To strip out the location data from photos stored on your computer, do the following.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size"><strong>In Windows:</strong>&nbsp;Right-click on the image file, then Properties &gt; Remove Properties and Personal Information.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size"><strong>In macOS:</strong>&nbsp;Open the photo in Preview, then Tools &gt; Show Inspector &gt; Remove Location Info.</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Try a More Private Browser</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">It’s an open secret that Google Chrome, one of the most widely used web browsers, collects lots of data about its users. That includes location information, search history, and details about your browsing, data that’s linked to your identity and harnessed for third-party advertising.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">For an easy privacy fix, all you have to do is switch to a different browser. Popular alternatives include Firefox and DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Browser mobile app. Both promise to collect far less personal information.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">There’s a caveat, though. Chrome has a reputation for being the best option to protect your security (i.e., defending against hackers) even if it infringes on your privacy along the way. If you might be a high-value target, such as a person who handles very sensitive information or, say, the CEO of a big company, security may be a bigger concern than privacy. You’ll need to weigh the trade-off for yourself.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">And all browsers, including Chrome, have privacy settings you can use to limit tracking.</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Enable Multifactor Authentication</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Security experts say everyone should use multifactor authentication, also known as two-factor authentication, when it’s offered.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">The goal is to block hackers from gaining access, even if they’ve acquired your password. Once you turn on a company’s MFA setting, you’ll need to provide info in addition to the password anytime you try to access the account from an unverified location or device.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Typically, the company will send you a verification code by text, or—and this is more secure—you can use an app such as Authy or a physical security key. Without the second identifier, hackers armed with a stolen password get blocked. Setting up MFA is usually easy.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">As an example, for your Google account, go to your Gmail inbox or any other Google page. Then click the icon in the top right and hit “Manage Your Account” (you may need to sign in first) &gt; Security &gt; 2-Step Verification &gt; Get Started.</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Change Your Router Password</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Your WiFi router is like the front door to your digital life, and the consequences could be dire if it’s compromised.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">There are a number of steps you can take to boost your router security, and one of the most important is quick: Change the default password for your router’s settings.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">This is different from the WiFi password. These administrative passwords tend to be the same across models in each brand.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">If you have an extra 30 seconds, change the SSID (the name of your WiFi network), too—the default often reveals the make and model of your router, making it easier for hackers to spot vulnerabilities.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">If you have a newer router, it could have an associated app, which makes it easy to change all your router settings.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Otherwise, you can access the controls from a web browser. Steps for getting there are easy, but they vary across brands.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">On most Linksys and TP-Link routers, for example, type 192.168.1.1 into a web browser while you’re on the network, and then log in with the default credentials.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">You can often find them on a sticker on the back of the router or in the instruction manual.</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Clear Your 'Off-Facebook' Activity</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Facebook tracks you even when you aren’t on Facebook. Through partnerships with hundreds of thousands of apps and websites, the company gets details about what you do all across the web.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">This information can reveal a lot about you, and it’s especially valuable for advertising purposes. Facebook recently unveiled a new tool that lets you see some of that data and “clear” it from your account. Counterintuitively, Facebook doesn’t actually delete any data if you do this—but the company promises it won’t use any cleared data for targeted ads.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">You can use a second setting to keep this information disconnected from your account by default so that the social media giant won’t use any new off-Facebook data to target you with ads.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">In a web browser on your computer: Click the icon with your profile picture in the top right of the Facebook home page to open the menu &gt; Settings &amp; Privacy &gt; Settings &gt; Your Facebook information &gt; Off-Facebook activity. (The steps are similar in the app.)</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">From there, hit the “Clear previous activity” button. After you follow the prompts, go back to the Off Facebook Activity page and hit “Disconnect future activity.”</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Try a Fake Email Address</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">As you cruise around the internet, you’re constantly asked to give up your email address. There are plenty of reasons you might not want to if you can avoid it.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">For one, advertising companies use details such as your email address as clues to tie everything you do across the web together in order to build comprehensive profiles of who you are and what you’re like.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">They can also use your email address to send you spam.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Want to throw a wrench in their gears? Try a service that will generate fake email addresses you can give out instead. There are a number of options, including Sign in with Apple, a tool for Macs and iPhones, and Firefox Relay, which runs alongside the Firefox browser.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">There are also a variety of services that provide temporary inboxes that self-destruct, such as 10 Minute Mail. You can use them to create a throwaway account that you need to access only one time.</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Check Your Data-Breach Status</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">The bad news: The majority of consumers have been the victim of a data breach at a big company such as Equifax. The good news: There’s a great database you can check to see whether you’ve been included in a breach.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">At Have I Been Pwned, you can check your email addresses and usernames against lists from hundreds of known breaches at companies including Adobe, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. (You’ll need to register to check the full database.) You can also sign up to get notifications if you’re affected by future breaches.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">If your name pops up, change the password for the compromised account and any other site where you made the mistake of using the same password. While you’re at it, check out CR’s tips for stronger passwords. (Bonus tip: Pros pronounce “pwned” as “poned,” not “pawned.”)</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">Plan for the Next Steps</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">The tips above will all make a meaningful dent in your digital footprint, but there’s a lot you can do for more comprehensive protection. A broader privacy audit will take a bit longer than 30 seconds, but getting started is quick and easy with two programs we’ve put together at Consumer Reports.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">First, take a few seconds to sign up for the 7-Day Privacy Challenge. The Challenge is a week-long email series that will give you one simple activity each day. Complete them all, and your digital life will be more private and secure, and you’ll be left with a better understanding of how your information is collected and used.</p>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">For a personalized action plan, check out the Consumer Reports Security Planner. It gives you customized tips with easy-to-follow instructions based on the gadgets you own and your specific concerns. Some steps take longer than others, but getting started is fast, and you can start with the high-priority items and come back for the rest when you have time. (Security Planner is free to use, and we won’t use the details you share for anything other than providing you with a plan.)</p>
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<h2 class="has-black-color has-text-color has-extra-large-font-size">What Is Exif Data?</h2>
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<p class="has-black-color has-text-color has-large-font-size">Attached to the photos you take on your phone are bits of information, such as when and where they were taken. On the “Consumer 101” TV show, host Jack Rico explains what you need to know about protecting your privacy.</p>
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<p></p>
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<p>To read the full article, <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/30-second-privacy-fixes-simple-ways-to-protect-your-data-a9402343475/">click here.</a></p>
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