Big tech is spying on you, your personal information is not secure,
and advertisers are collecting an absurd amount of data about you.
In this video, we're going to talk about every Android privacy setting
you need to change, as well as the number one privacy issue on Androids.
Let's head into the Settings app.
I'll swipe down from the upper right hand corner of the screen
and then tap the gear icon on the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Scroll down and tap on Security and Privacy
and scroll down and tap privacy.
We're going to start in Permission Manager.
We go through the settings in this video pretty quick.
So if you'd like to follow along with a PDF guide to make your life easier,
you can join our channel, just click the join button below the video.
Permission Manager is where you get to pick and choose which apps
have access to things like your contacts, your camera and your microphone.
Let's start by tapping on Camera.
And the thing to watch out for in here is allowed all the time.
These are apps that have access
to your camera all the time, even when you're not using that app.
We don't have any apps in here. We just got this phone.
We've noticed that Android has gotten better over time with regard to privacy.
But if you've had an Android smartphone for a while,
you're probably going to see at least a few apps in here.
To change the permission for an app, I'll just pick on Bixby Voice, for example.
You can choose allow only while using the app, ask every time or don't allow.
I'm going to choose ask every time.
You might see a scary looking pop up that says something like
if you deny this permission,
basic features of your device may no longer function as intended.
We recommend tapping don't allow anyway.
It's very unlikely that Bixby Voice is going to use your camera.
And even if it wants to in the future,
you can just come back in here and turn this setting back on.
I'll tap don't allow anyway.
Next, let's talk about contacts.
I'll tap back upper left hand corner of the screen.
Back again to permission manager.
Let's tap contacts.
By default, a lot of apps do have access to all the contacts
on this phone.
Social media apps, for example, when you sign up for the first time,
they ask to have access to your contacts to connect you with all of your friends.
It's useful when you're making that account for the first time.
But do they need it forever?
I don't think so. I don't think so either.
So let's tap on Facebook and then we'll select don't allow.
This next one's a battery and a privacy issue.
Let's talk about location.
I'll tap back upper left hand corner of the screen.
Back again to permission manager.
Scroll down and tap on location.
Again, the scary thing here is allowed all the time.
These apps can access your location all the time, even when you're not using that app.
And whenever your phone uses GPS to check your location, it also uses battery life.
So these apps can drain your battery all the time, too.
If an app has access to your location all the time, like Bixby voice
or picking on Bixby voice today, we'll tap on that.
Then we'll tap allow only while using the app.
Pretty much any option other than allow all the time.
It's relatively safe.
Then again, we get that scary looking pop up.
We're going to say don't allow anyway.
Next, let's talk about the use precise locations, which the more precise
your Android phone identifies where you are, the more battery it uses.
You really only need to have precise location on for GPS apps like maps.
This one we should just turn off.
Absolutely. We'll turn off that switch next to use precise location.
Next, we're going to talk about microphone permissions.
I'll tap back upper left hand corner of the screen.
Back to permission manager, then tap on microphone.
Again, no apps allowed all the time, but that is the one to be careful of.
Right. But allowed only well in use can also be an issue.
Like for Facebook, we want to tap on that and switch it to ask every time.
Because if Facebook is allowed to use your microphone
while you're using the app, then it could always be listening to you
as long as the app is open instead of asking for your permission
to use the microphone.
When you get a new Android, go through permission manager
and be really intentional about what apps can access
what features on your Android and how often they have that access.
Next, alert when clipboard is accessed.
A result of some controversy from TikTok.
Let's tap back upper left hand corner of the screen.
Back to permission manager and back one more time.
Scroll down to alert when clipboard is accessed and turn that switch on.
For a while, TikTok was taking whatever was on your clipboard
whenever you opened an app and just sending it to their servers.
By turning this switch on,
you'll receive a notification when an app accesses your clipboard.
But as you were saying, it's like it's not super secure.
They're just, you know, hey, yeah, well, they took it. Yeah, we took it.
Thanks. Thanks.
Be careful about copying and pasting passwords
from one app to another, because you really never know.
Next, when you talk about customization service,
I'm going to tap other privacy settings at the bottom of the screen.
Then tap customization service.
The first thing to look at here is customized app.
So I'm going to tap on that seems like no big deal.
I mean, who doesn't love sticker recommendations in the calendar app?
The cost? Well, we can see it when we tap back upper left hand corner
of the screen, then tap on data management, your call and message history,
your search data on the Internet, your browsing history on the Internet
and your location with GPS.
But none of that information is actually getting sent to Samsung, is it?
Your phone actually sends all this information to Samsung
when customization is on.
So we should just turn off customization service altogether.
You have a couple of choices.
You could go and pick and choose which data you want to send to Samsung, right?
Maybe you want to send them your browsing history.
I don't. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to tap back upper
left hand corner of the screen.
And if we've adequately scared, you can just come down here and tap.
Stop customizing all devices, then tap.
Stop all customization.
Samsung does say this may take up to 48 hours to be applied.
Well, they've got people over there.
Oh, he decided to turn it off.
Let me just turn that off in our system. Yep.
And we'll tap turn off at the bottom of the screen.
We go through these settings pretty quickly.
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Click that join button below this video.
And once you've done that, we can talk about diagnostic data.
Your Android will use battery life collecting and cellular data
sending this data to Samsung.
Turn off the switch next to send diagnostic data.
Uncheck the I agree to send diagnostic data box.
They really could have put an extra space there.
It's like a little typo.
And then tap OK at the bottom of the screen.
A few down from send diagnostic data is activity controls.
Let's tap on that.
This will send you to your Google account, right?
So we just did a bunch of Samsung settings.
Now we're going to do Google settings.
Some of them might seem similar, but they're just different companies.
In case you didn't know that.
Scroll down to web and app activity and take a look at these sub settings.
If you'd like Google to remember your searches so you can find websites
you've previously visited faster, leave web and activity on.
But you might want to turn off some of these sub settings,
especially include voice and audio activity.
I don't want Google storing that data.
I'm going to uncheck that box.
Then you got to scroll down and tap stop saving,
then tap and got it in the lower right hand corner of the screen.
I'd like to point out two words that you should watch for
whenever you're in this section of settings, personalized experiences.
When we see personalized experiences, what should we think as ads?
The more an advertiser knows about you, the more they'll pay
to get your attention on the Internet, on Google,
all over the place.
Google is pretty good with your privacy, but data breaches can and do happen.
Also, you don't know what happens
if your Google account information falls into the wrong hands.
If you want to leave on these sub settings, I do recommend turning on
an auto delete schedule.
If we tap on that, you can set your auto delete schedule
to three months, 18 months or 36 months, which is three years.
Thirty six months.
It's like that song from Rent.
One million five hundred and seventy six thousand eight hundred minutes.
Close enough.
We really recommend choosing three months, then tapping next to the bottom
of the screen, then tapping, got it in your auto delete schedule is set.
There's another important Google setting we need to turn off.
It's Google location history.
Let's scroll down and take a look at Google location history.
Your phone is saving a record of all the places you go with your phone.
And if that list falls into the wrong hands, it's pretty easy
to see how that could go very poorly for you.
You get directions right to your house stock if all you around town.
Yeah, you don't want that.
You could be stocked via car, bus, bike, walking, mass transit,
everything Google Maps can do.
And I see personalized to get in here.
Yeah, personalized ads, more ads.
We really recommend turning off Google location history.
I'm going to tap and turn off.
If you can't remember where you've been, you might have a different problem.
Now, you can't turn off Google location history, but you can pause
Google location history because Google thinks you're coming back.
You'll be back.
Maybe maybe they'll find a way to switch that back on future update.
Make sure to come back. Yeah.
We'll tap pause at the bottom of the screen.
And that's as good as we can do to turning off Google location history.
If you'd like to learn more about how to de-Google your phone,
as the kids say, and the tech experts like us, check out the video
and the card above in the description section below.
There's good stuff in there.
But if you're sticking around here, we have more privacy settings to change.
I'll tap back upper left hand corner of the screen.
We're back in other privacy settings.
I'm going to tap on ads and we recommend deleting your advertising ID.
It's important to delete an advertising ID after you turn off web
and app activity or map settings, because turning that off
only applies to what you do moving forward with your phone.
But what about all the data that's already collected?
That's all linked to your current ID, which you can see down
at the bottom of the screen.
Just tap delete advertising ID.
Your new settings are applied moving forward and you'll stay safe.
I'll tap delete advertising ID, delete advertising ID.
And then it says advertising ID deleted.
And if you ever want to come back and get a new advertising ID,
this is where to do it.
You would just tap get new advertising ID.
But we're not going to get a new advertising ID.
Remember earlier how we turned off send diagnostic data?
Yeah. Well, we get to do it again.
Let's tap back upper left hand corner of the screen.
Tap usage and diagnostics and turn off the switch
next to usage and diagnostics.
The first one we turned off was for Samsung.
This one is for Google.
It's in the fine print there.
David had to point that out to me.
It's interesting on Android because you have similar sounding settings
for different companies,
but you really can't tell them apart within the settings app.
Let's talk about the number one privacy issue on Androids.
It's a feature called install unknown apps.
I'll tap back upper left hand corner of the screen back again
and back to our main security and privacy page.
Scroll down and tap install unknown apps.
These are apps that can install other apps on your Android
without your permission.
We recommend turning off
install unknown apps for all of the apps on your Android.
Now, in the future, if you want an app to install an unknown app,
it seems feasible that could happen in the future.
Come back in here.
Turn the switch on.
Let's install the app.
Come back. Turn it off again.
Install unknown apps can be dangerous.
Let's say we allowed Galaxy wearable to install other unknown apps.
It's like inviting Galaxy wearable over to a party in your house
and then saying you can invite all of your friends to
some of them might be bad actors, trash your house.
Not a good deal.
Now we've gotten comments where people say we're kind of fear mongering here.
We have and they're saying that we're being a little bit too alarmist
and that sometimes pop ups will appear on your Android
when an app wants to install an unknown app.
Fair, but how often have you ever clicked through just a pop up?
Just get it off the screen.
I've done it all the time. All the time. Yeah.
I was going to protect you. That's the point.
I would also be concerned about like bad apps that are maybe coded
poorly or intentionally poorly that maybe throw off the tap targets a little bit.
So you automatically tap the thing that they want you to say.
Yeah, this is you know, people assume that everybody's well intentioned.
Yeah, but we kind of make our videos based on real life
and what actually can happen out there.
We'll leave it at this.
Your Android does say installing apps from the source
may put your phone and data at risk.
That is why we recommend turning off all of these switches
and install unknown apps.
Just play it safe.
This next setting is very important, especially if you have a nosy sibling.
Let's tap back upper left hand corner of the screen.
Tap on other security settings.
Make passwords visible when this is on.
It shows password characters briefly as you type them.
Unless you're brand new to typing on an Android,
you probably don't need this on.
How often are you actually checking every letter as you type it?
If you're in a public place, you're being recorded by someone or some business.
Exactly.
And if they have a good angle of your phone,
they can quickly and easily steal your passwords.
That is why we recommend turning off.
Make passwords visible.
My Hulu account just got hacked the other day and like a Tesla on autopilot.
This next setting gives apps the power to completely control your Android.
Probably just as safe to let's tap on a device admin apps right now.
Outlook device policy has device admin privileges on this phone.
To see what that entails, you can tap on the app.
Monitor screen lock attempts.
It can lock the screen.
It can also set storage encryption.
Why is this pre-installed on people's phones?
I don't know.
Microsoft's paying Samsung or something.
Maybe I don't have an Outlook account.
If you don't have one either,
you can definitely deactivate Outlook device policies, device admin privileges.
I will say on this new S23, both of these were off by default.
On older Androids we've used, they've both been on by default.
It's definitely a good idea to come in here and check your apps.
The Android settings app is really good at getting your attention
and giving you the impression that your device needs to be scanned
or it's not protected.
Let's go to that part of the settings app and see what actually happens.
Let's tap back up our left hand corner of the screen.
Back to our security and privacy settings.
Scroll up and then big suggestion looks scary.
Shield exclamation point and orange.
Oh, let's tap scan. See what happens.
Now it's green. Happy. Good.
One suggestion.
Turn on device protection.
It's amazing how fast that scanned the entire phone. Brilliant.
It's almost like it wasn't a real scan that just happened.
Well, let's let's keep going down this path.
All right. Well, I'll tap on go to device protection right now.
We just scanned it.
Now it says last scanned. Never.
Anyway, let's turn it on and scan again.
You want to turn it on and scan again?
Yeah, let's do it.
You don't want to read the fine print first.
Do you want to read the oh, well, we'll go ahead, David.
Well, it says McAfee and user license agreement and McAfee privacy policy.
OK, but that's nice that McAfee would give us free stuff.
Oh, you think it's free?
Well, if we tap on check offers here, free offer, right?
It's built into the settings app.
How could they charge us for $37.99?
Look at you're saving $112, though.
It's like it's free. It's practically free. It's a bargain.
In the upper right hand corner, it says exclusive Samsung offer.
So McAfee and Samsung are in cahoots.
This is a brand new phone we just took right out of the box.
There is no need for an antivirus on this phone.
If you see those big, scary device protection warnings,
just ignore them as best as best as you can.
You don't need it.
As long as you're downloading your apps from the Google Play Store,
the Samsung Galaxy Store, any of these really good app stores
that have built in safeguards that protect your device.
If you root your Android or you download apps from non-approved app stores,
that's when something like this might come in handy.
But I don't think you need it.
One thing you really need to do is keep your Android up to date.
Software vulnerabilities happen quite often, and the phone
manufacturers are getting pretty good at patching those updates
quickly as possible.
Let's tap back up our left hand corner of the screen.
We'll go back to our main page of settings here.
Scroll down to software update.
Tap on that, then tap download and install.
FBI Denver recently tweeted not to use public charging stations
because they can contain malware or other software that can infect your phone.
Sounds like they've been watching our videos. Sounds like it.
Well, if you want to learn more about avoiding malware on your Android,
check out our next video all about Android viruses and how to avoid them.
We'll see you there.