These hidden controls, found in products from Apple, Google, Meta, and other companies, force consumers to reveal more information than is necessary. And we have to turn off those settings.
The factory defaults that tech corporations deeply ingrain in the products, programmes, and websites we use. We frequently have to reveal information about our whereabouts and activities in these environments. We can normally choose not to have our data collected, but the corporations hide the choices and buttons, probably in the hopes that we won’t immediately change our minds.
According to Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, leaving some default settings on supposedly helps their algorithms learn and find faults, which makes their products simpler for consumers to use. However, sharing needless data isn’t always in our best interests.
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| Default Settings You have to turn off |
How we can turn off settings?
Iphone
Users of iPhones can modify how they share information about their app use and location by opening the settings app and going to the privacy menu.
Turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track under Tracking. All apps are instructed not to disclose user data with third parties for marketing purposes by this.
To prevent Apple from using information about you to provide customised adverts on its App Store, Apple News, and Stocks, select Apple Ads and turn off Personalized Ads.
Turn off Analytics & Improvements by selecting it. To stop the iPhone from transmitting Apple device data to enhance its products, share iPhone Analytics.
To stop the device from sharing geodata with Apple for the purpose of developing Apple Maps, select Location Services, touch System Services, then turn off iPhone Analytics and Navigation & Traffic.
Google’s Products
The control panel for adjusting data management is located on the website myactivity.google.com, and Google items, including Android phones and web services like Google search, YouTube, and Google Maps, are linked to Google accounts.
Set auto-delete to eliminate activity older than three months for each of the three categories—Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History. In this method, Google removes entries that are more than 90 days old rather than keeping a permanent record of each search. On the basis of recent searches, it can still provide useful recommendations in the near future.
People can share their estimated position with apps rather than their exact location in newer versions of Android.
Providing rough data should be the preferred method for many apps, such as weather apps, while sharing accurate geodata should only be done for apps that require it to function properly, such as map apps.
The privacy inspection function in the settings menu gives access to Meta’s most crucial settings. The following adjustments are crucial to avoid eavesdropping by employers and marketers:
Choose “Only me” for those with access to your friend list and pages you follow under “Who can view what you share,” and choose “Friends” for those who can see your birthday.
Select “Only me” under “How people can find you on Facebook” for those who can only find you by email or phone number.
Turn off the settings for relationship status, employer, job title, and education under “Your ad preferences on Facebook.” This prevents marketers from using this data to provide tailored adverts.
Amazon products and gadgets
Through its web page and tools like Alexa and Nest cameras, Amazon provides some control over how information is shared. I urge you to turn off the following two settings:
The feature Amazon Sidewalk, which lets newer Amazon gadgets automatically share internet connections with neighbouring devices, was introduced by Amazon last year. According to critics, Sidewalk could provide access to personal information for criminals.
Open the Amazon Alexa app and select More in the lower right corner of the screen to turn it off for an Echo speaker. Select Amazon Sidewalk from the list of options inside the settings, then turn Sidewalk off.
Microsoft Windows
Many data-sharing options are enabled by default on Windows PCs to assist Microsoft, advertisers, and websites in learning so much about us. By entering the settings menu, selecting Privacy and security, then General, you can find the switches to turn those settings off.
The worst Windows default setting, however, could not be related to privacy. When Wirecutter editor Kimber Streams evaluates new laptops, one of their initial actions is to access the sound menu and choose No Sounds to silence the numerous irritating chimes that sound anytime Windows encounters a problem.
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