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| source:Google |
With the use of some mobile applications, our
privacy seems to be unsecured. There are lots of applications we use today that
always demand to know our location, and once granted, the developers of such
app would have access to track us where ever we are. With such apps, where we
are, how long we stayed there and some other private information regarding our
location can be easily deduced.
You need to note that the practice of demanding for
your location is not only practiced by free apps that doesn’t require you to
pay, it is also a practice of some other apps that requires you to pay as well.
A research was recently carried out by the New York
Times to confirm how user’s location are shared on certain apps. The result of
the research isn’t a good one for mobile users. In the research, the Times
tested 20 different apps. All these apps had been earlier flagged by
researchers and insiders for sharing location data with several vendors.
Out of
these 20, 17 apps were found to send the exact location (latitude and longitude
information) of the user to 70 different businesses. One of these apps is the
WeatherBug on iOS which alone sends the information to 40 different companies.
As per The Times, some companies who receive this data call it ‘unsolicited’ or
‘inappropriate’.
How to avoid sharing your location?
If you stick to the following practice, apps would
be prevented from tracking your location:
Avoid sharing your location with them
It is important that you avoid
sharing your location unnecessarily based on the demand from certain apps. For
instance, the weather apps on your phone might demand that you give permission
for it to read your location so it can update you of the forecast. You need to
note that the moment you accept this, the weather app now has full access to
track where you are and can easily share it with any one.
Although this might
be stated in the long written text of terms and conditions that you might not
even have time to read. What’s important is that you should limit the usage of
such app, or even avoid totally if possible for the benefit of your privacy.
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Check your settings
If you want to know weather a
particular app on your phone is capable of tracking your location or not, all
you need to do is to check your phone setting. On Android, this can be done by tapping
on the setting icon, scroll to Apps and notifications, select the app you want
to examine, proceed to tap permissions. At this stage, you will find a three
dot icon in the upper right corner of your phone, tap it and select all
permissions, then look for “location” by scrolling down. Once this is done the
final stage is to tap on the location icon and close it. Now the app has no
access to track your location anymore.
On iOS, tap your setting icon,
scroll down to privacy, select location services. At this stage, the individual
location settings will appear on the screen. Select any app you want to examine,
then adjust its access to whatever way you want it. If you close the location,
then it won’t be accessible to your location anymore.