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Does Your Android Phone Have Secure Digital Privacy? Information privacy is very important though quite a number of people do not take digital privacy seriously. Many people though understand the importance of protecting their devices against hackers, phishers and identity thieves. Out of the majority that knows why it is important to do so, only a fraction go-ahead to find ways of how to protect digital privacy of their devices. One of the devices that almost everyone uses nowadays for either communication or business is the smartphone. While the iPhone comes with some special security features, the Android phone, on the other hand, does not come with the same security features and you have to find different ways of ensuring your Android keeps the information safe. Unlike the iPhone, the Android phone gives you much more control over what you can do with your phone. You can install more apps on your Android phone than you can with Apple gadgets that only allow you to use the App store for installing apps. An Android phone allows you to install apps from Google play or use APK files if you want more. Because of this versatility, there is a bigger risk of digital privacy to Android phone users from hackers than there is on Apple gadgets. APK files can bring harm to your phone because they do not come with any authorisation from Google play. Tips to secure your Android information and APK files ● Install apps from Google store One of the reasons why people love using the Android phone is because of the ability to install as many apps as they can. While you can increase the number of files to install by installing an APK file on your file, there is a better way of avoiding hackers and viruses on your Android. Install all your apps from the Google play store. Apps from Google play are safe, and once you start installing apps from other sources, then chances are you are opening up your phone to harmful applications. ● Check the behaviour of your phone The Android phone is very prone to hacking and especially from crypojackers. Cryptocurrency transactions are carried out across the globe using digital hardware that requires spending money and time carrying out the transactions. Using smartphones is one of the most cost effective and fastest ways of transacting in Cryptocurrency. To mine more currency, crypto jackers introduce apps that may look harmless. What you may not know is that these apps introduce malware to the phones. Some of the tell-tale signs that your phone has a mining malware are: the phone slows down extensively and overheats from time to time. There is a danger of the phone even getting permanent damage if you do not take immediate action. ● Check the virus total of your APK files The virus total only works for files not exceeding 128 MB. This may not help many people because the majority of the apps installed run into more MB than that. However, if you install you want to find out if the APK file you are installing is safe, upload the file onto the VirusTotal website, and the site will let you know if your file has any viruses or other issues. Other applications that you can use to check if your Android APK file is safe are Hash Droid and NViso ApkScan. ● Make sure your data is encrypted Though the majority of Android phones come with the encryption default, it will not hurt to countercheck. You can do this by going to the settings and looking for the encryption option in order to be completely sure. In case you have mounted a MicroSD card, do the same because it also may contain information that you would not want to get to the wrong people. ● Do not accept APP installation permissions You will find that you have too many apps requesting your permission to collect data from you. Unless it is an app that you are sure of, do not give any information or grant permission to apps that you do not know about to collect any data from you. Most probably the only reason they want the data is so that they can use it for their evil deeds. If you already have the apps, make an investigation and revoke your permission to them. ● Google does not need your automatic backups While it is a good idea to have backups because there could be files that you may need in future, find other ways of backing up your information. Automatic backups of your files with Google could land into the wrong people, and they could use the same to harm you in different ways. Simply go to your settings and toggle off the automatic backups. ● Set strong passwords Android phones come with the options of using either pin or a pattern to lock and unlock your phone. Many people prefer using the pattern or pin numbers that they can easily remember. Pin numbers that are easy to remember include birth dates, anniversary dates and the like. Hackers or people that know your most important dates and personal details can use the information they have to try to unlock your phone. They can play around with patterns to unlock your phone. Using alphanumeric passwords is the safest way to protect your digital privacy information. ● Turn off your location Your location history may seem like something that would not warrant any harm coming your way, but it actually does say a lot. Your history will show a pattern of where you often go, who you meet and probably even the things you do. Google then uses this history and your trend to send you more and more ads to your android phone. This does not do any good to your privacy, and the best thing to do would be to turn off your location and delete any history of the places you have visited. Wrapping it up Today not many people that have tech knowledge can do without smartphones. As much as they can do almost everything, not all are safe from information thieves. However, you can hack-proof your android phone and protect the privacy of your data and live a life of never having to deal with hackers and thieves. The above tips will guide you on how you can go about protecting both your peace of mind and personal information.