Speaker 1: It is time for a phone check up to see
Speaker 1: if any of your apps are spying on you. I'm
Speaker 1: rich Deimiro. This is Rich on Tech Daily. By now,
Speaker 1: we're all pretty familiar with the idea of Facebook and
Speaker 1: Google collecting loads of data on us, But what about
Speaker 1: all the other apps on our phone? Now? I was
Speaker 1: really surprised the other day when I downloaded Snapchat. I
Speaker 1: started using it again after a very long period of absence.
Speaker 1: This was on my Android device, and when I downloaded it,
Speaker 1: it literally asked for every single permission available on my device,
Speaker 1: all at once. I'm talking access to my microphone, my camera,
Speaker 1: my location, basically everything. Now, I understand that Snapchat needs
Speaker 1: a lot of these permissions to function properly, but ask
Speaker 1: me one at a time. Ask me when I start
Speaker 1: to use the camera, ask me when I start to
Speaker 1: use the microphone. Now, I think is a good time
Speaker 1: to do a little check up on your phone, just
Speaker 1: like you might get your teeth checked up, just to
Speaker 1: go through all the apps that you've installed to see
Speaker 1: what access they already have. What these apps are doing
Speaker 1: is they're trying to gather as much data as possible
Speaker 1: on their users. That way they can make the most
Speaker 1: money off of you because they can market to you better.
Speaker 1: Our job is to just say no. All right, So
Speaker 1: here's how to check these settings. If you're on iPhone,
Speaker 1: go into Settings then Privacy. iPhone makes it really easy
Speaker 1: to see all this stuff pretty much in a list.
Speaker 1: You're going to see a bunch of things once you
Speaker 1: go into privacy, starting with location services. That's a good
Speaker 1: place to start. So look in here and you'll notice
Speaker 1: a list of all your apps, and you'll see most
Speaker 1: of the apps have three options. There's always, use your
Speaker 1: location when you're using the app and never. Now. For
Speaker 1: the apps that don't need your location at all, just
Speaker 1: choose never. Sometimes you'll see a choice of always or
Speaker 1: when using the app. Sometimes you don't. It depends on
Speaker 1: how they've updated the app. But most of the time
Speaker 1: you want when using the app. I mean, even for
Speaker 1: something like Uber, they don't need your location all the time.
Speaker 1: They basically need your location when you actively need a
Speaker 1: car and you open the app the next Once you're
Speaker 1: done with location, back out a little bit. Go back
Speaker 1: into Privacy and go to the settings for photos, Contacts, camera,
Speaker 1: and microphone. Those are the important ones, and just tweak
Speaker 1: is necessary. It's pretty self explanatory. If you have a
Speaker 1: game app, it doesn't need access to your microphone for
Speaker 1: unless there's a specific reason why it would. Now you
Speaker 1: might be wondering, can you break anything? Not really, Basically,
Speaker 1: you're just shutting off access to these apps. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: will need these permissions to function properly, like for instance,
Speaker 1: like I said earlier, Google Maps probably won't work very
Speaker 1: well without location access Instagram, but we're probably not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to post anything if they don't have access
Speaker 1: to your photos. But otherwise, if you cut something off
Speaker 1: that the app actually needs, the next time you open
Speaker 1: that app, they're just going to ask you again. Now,
Speaker 1: when it comes to Android, things are a little bit
Speaker 1: more complicated, just because there are so many different versions
Speaker 1: of Android phones out there and versions of Android software.
Speaker 1: But if you're on the latest version Android eight point zero,
Speaker 1: this makes it pretty easy. You can just go into
Speaker 1: your Settings, then Apps and Notification, and then App Permissions.
Speaker 1: Here you're going to see a list of all the
Speaker 1: sensors on your phone, including camera, location, microphone, phone, text messages,
Speaker 1: and storage. Even things that the iPhone does not give
Speaker 1: apps access to. You can go through and click something
Speaker 1: like location and turn off access for apps that don't
Speaker 1: need it. So once you click microphone, you'll see a
Speaker 1: list of all the apps that could have access to
Speaker 1: your microphone. You can turn off the ones you don't
Speaker 1: think need it now. If you have an earlier version
Speaker 1: of Android, you can check the step by step directions
Speaker 1: on my website. Just go to richon tech dot tv.
Speaker 1: And in the future, when you download an app, be
Speaker 1: sure that you take a critical look at every app
Speaker 1: that you install, so when they ask for those permissions,
Speaker 1: make sure that you really think about why an app
Speaker 1: needs those permissions. If it's a game, I don't know
Speaker 1: why they would need access to your photos or your microphone.
Speaker 1: I say, when you're in doubt, deny the app or
Speaker 1: just go ahead and delete it. Lots of times when
Speaker 1: I'm looking for a new app to do something that
Speaker 1: I need some sort of functionality, and it you download
Speaker 1: it and it asks for a bunch of permissions, I'm
Speaker 1: just like, Nope, I'll just find another app that does
Speaker 1: the same thing. Thanks so much for listening. If you
Speaker 1: enjoy this podcast, please share it with friends or rate
Speaker 1: and review it in the Apple Podcasts app. Every review counts.
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Demiro If you want links to anything I
Speaker 1: mentioned here, just go to my website. Richon tech dot TV.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you real soon.