Before Cybersecurity Awareness Month ends, Google reminds us that there are ways to protect yourself and your Android phone from all kinds of attacks and threats you may receive. Sometimes, it’s really just a matter of knowing what is there on your phone that you can use and also remembering that not everyone has good intentions and so you must always be careful. Here are some of the ways you can protect your phone from phishing attacks, bad apps, and also making sure your private data is secure.
Phishing, if you didn’t know yet, is when bad elements try to trick you into giving up your private information. And while you think you may be savvy and all that, sometimes it’s still better to be safe than sorry. Three important features you can use on your Android phone is the Caller ID & Spam Protection which will tell you when an incoming call may be from a spammer, Safe Browsing which tells you when a website has been marked as a bad site or security risk, and the Phone-As-A-Security-Key feature where the built-in security key is the “strongest form of Google account protection”.
When it comes to protecting your information on your device, Google reminds you that you have to review what permissions and data access you grant the apps on your phone. Every once in a while you should go to the App permissions and revoke the ones you previously gave if you don’t need them to have access to your data anymore. You also need to double check which apps you’ve given location information to or just let it access your location when you’re using it. And if you don’t want Google Maps to have access to the places you search for, there’s always the Incognito Mode which is similar to the one in Chrome.
As you probably know by now, not all apps are good or have your best intention at heart. That’s why there’s Google Play Protect that will automatically scan your apps to make sure that all the apps you installed are safe. If it detects one that is “bad”, you’ll get an alert and instructions on how to remove it. Just go to the security section of your phone to run the scan manually although it should be running on its own as well.
Make sure that you use these free tools from Google to protect you from all kinds of things that are out there, just waiting to trick you and get something out of you that you don’t want to give. It’s important to be aware not just of the dangers but also how to protect yourself and your device from these dangers.
