The greatest breach of your privacy may be through your smartphone. But I want to share some ways you can limit all the spying!
Ways to limit ad tracking on your phone
Phones are are a gold mine for people looking to track you, dissect who are, and sell to you. In fact, you have to go back to using a feature phone if you want to avoid data miners! But there are ways to limit the surveillance even with the latest technology. (Special thanks to Kim Komando and her USA Today article for this info.)
For iPhone
Settings > Privacy > Advertising
Where it says "Limit ad tracking," be sure you're seeing a green color. If not, just slide the button so that you are.
Look also for "Reset Advertising Identifier" below that. Tap it to reset your ad ID with a new random number. That will make it more difficult for advertisers to track you too.
For Android
Go to your Google Settings app > Ads
Click "Opt out of interest-based as," which will instruct apps not to use your advertising ID to build profiles or show you interest-based ads.
You'll also want to select the "Reset advertising ID" right below it. Much like with the Apple example above, this will make it more difficult for advertisers to track you.
For Windows
Visit Microsoft's ad opt-out page and click "Off" under "Personalize ads whenever I use my Microsoft account." Be sure you're signed in with the same Windows account you use on your phone when you do this.
Use a private, no-track search engine
The reality is you ignore the online trail that you leave behind at your own risk. I recently learned that the #1 weapon for divorce lawyers in contentious cases is requesting disclosure of e-mail and search history, as well as who you "friend" on social media.
If you want to avoid leaving a trail, try doing your searches through a popular new search tool called DuckDuckGo. You can also install the DuckDuckGo app on your iPhone or Android device.
Since 2013 I've been using this tool instead of Google. It delivers cleaner search results with fewer advertisements and does not record your searches.
- To set DuckDuckGo as your homepage, drag this link to the home icon in your Firefox toolbar.
- Here's how to install the DuckDuckGo toolbar on any major browser.
DuckDuckGo was started by a fellow named Gabe Weinberg. Weinberg thought it was crazy that ads pop up on Google so prominently and they track you everywhere you go and then serve you more ads based on what you search. He just wanted a straight, clean search, and that's what he developed. With no real business model, he's still trying to figure out how to make real money from this creation.
For other no-track search options, The New York Times also recommends Private Lee, Qrobe.it, IxQuick, and Disconnect Search.
