Tips for phone privacy?
Tips for phone privacy?
Hey Hexbear
Like to think I do an ok job keeping my desktop setup secure, but realized recently I don't do the same for my mobile devices.
Does anyone have any good tips how to help keep your phone more private and secure?
I have both an android and iPhone, and realize androids are superior to that sort of customization. Thought it might be useful tho if anyone had any tips for either though.
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Not android specific:
If you are already getting a new number, instead of just signing up with your real ZIP, it might be worth taking a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_Numbering_Plan_area_codes and picking an area code that hasn't been rolled out for over half a century (literally). They tend to have had many previous owners over the years and you'll be getting spam on day one. If you pick a more recent area code there's a good chance you won't get flooded with spam constantly.
Don't be like boomers and use the same number for your entire life. Remember where you use your phone number so you can always change it if you need to. Create a Google Voice (or similar) account to use for online purchases, or to give to acquaintances or anyone else who you might not want to have your real number.
For Android:
Use a separate phone for work. Always. Bare minimum you should use a phone that lets you use work profiles (Samsung supports this) and use something like Island/Shelter/Insular. That way you control the work profile, and not your employer.
Personally I gave up trying to firewall apps on my phone (e.g. NetFilter or AF Wall). I use DNS level filtering if needed, and anything I don't fully trust just isn't getting installed in the first place.
Others mentioned rooting, I wouldn't recommend this unless you're already familiar with how to navigate that. I used to be very much into rooting say 10 years ago, but the tools and methods people use now are basically unrecognizable to me. Definitely not like riding a bike, I would be totally lost and not confident in my ability to not brick my phone. Things are always changing and there's always new happenings to stay on top of, patch, mod, find unofficial updates for. Not worth it, at least for me. It can open up a lot of possibilities for privacy with stuff like Xposed modules (if those still are a thing), but yeah.