Walking around with a powerful computer in your pocket is pretty amazing. Smartphones have made our lives so much easier, allowing us to access information, work, and communicate from anywhere. On the other hand, our mobile devices have also made our personal information more vulnerable.
Some of these common behaviors may be jeopardizing your privacy even more.
- Connecting to Public WiFi
Having access to WiFi in public places like cafes, malls, and airports is so convenient. However, it is one of the riskiest things you can do on your smartphone. Because most public WiFi networks don’t require any kind of log-in, anyone can access them, making them a prime target for hackers. While it’s probably OK to quickly check your flight status or look up bits of trivia, you should avoid doing anything that could give hackers access to your sensitive data. Online shopping or banking, for example, should wait until you are on your secure home network.
To protect your personal data, tech innovator Thierry LeVasseur suggests to turn off automatic WiFi on your phone so it won’t automatically seek out hotspots. He also advises to use encryption or a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, to create a network-within-a-network, keeping everything you do secure.
- Ignoring Updates
Waiting around for your device to apply updates can be annoying, especially if you are in the middle of working or having a conversation. Ignoring updates, though, can have huge negative consequences. Updates are often designed to fix bugs and weak areas that make your personal data vulnerable. If you don’t apply them, you’re leaving your information open to hackers. A few minutes of inconvenience is so much better than suffering from an avoidable data breach.
- Downloading Sketchy Apps
There are millions of apps you can download to your device. They’re for work, play, and functions you never knew you wanted or needed. When you’re choosing what to download to your smartphone, be smart. Look for apps with lots of downloads, good reviews, and are made by a reputable developer. Some malicious apps are made expressly to steal your information through sneaky methods (e.g. motion sensors and GPS trackers), so always do your research before downloading.
- Using the Same Password for Everything
You’ve heard this a million times but it bears repeating: don’t use the same password for all of your accounts! Once hackers know your log-in credentials for one site, their next step is to find your other online accounts and try to log in with those same credentials. Create your accounts with different usernames and passwords and change those passwords often. Similarly, avoid using third-party logins. While it’s certainly convenient to sign up for accounts using your Facebook or Google credentials, it also puts your personal information at risk.
- Not Setting a Passcode
Only 44 percent of people actually set a passcode or PIN on their mobile device. Taking this simple, quick step, though, is one of the easiest ways to keep your smartphone safe. If someone steals your phone or you lose it, your personal data is at a huge risk of a breach. This risk increases even more if you save log-in information on your device. Having a passcode makes it much harder for the thief to unlock your phone and access that information.
None of these behaviors are obviously careless, but they do all put your personal data at risk of a breach. Make smart choices when using your mobile device; it may save you from being hacked.
