HOW TO PROTECT YOUR DATA ON YOUR IPHONE
Do you ever stop and think about the data on your iPhone?
While we don't want to scare you, data breaches are increasingly common. It's always wise to make sure that your data gets protected. You want to make sure that only you have access to your data. You want to ensure that you always maintain your privacy.
So what are the best ways to protect data on your iPhone?
We've prepared this detailed guide on data protection and stay safe at all times.
Choosing Your Passcode
As a default, your passcode will be four characters long. However, when you choose your passcode you can choose the Custom Alphanumeric Code option. Make sure you always choose this option for your iPhone.
You also want to make sure that your passcode is as challenging as possible. Don't go for obvious things such as your birthdate or any other significant date. You also don't want your passcode to match other PIN codes for other accounts.
You can also enable the erase passcode option. This will automatically delete your data after 10 failed passcode attempts. Go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Erase Data. Toggle this on. This is especially crucial if you feel you can lose or have your iPhone stolen.
Hide Notifications
To draw less attention to your iPhone, you want to turn off notifications. You should especially turn them off for sensitive apps.
You want to make sure that sensitive data such as your text messages don't get seen. Go to your Settings and select Notifications. You'll see a list of all your apps that show notifications. For best security, select each one of them and then toggle Show on Lock Screen off.
Don't Share Your Location
You should never share your location on your iPhone.
When your location gets turned on, your whereabouts are always shared with your contacts. If one of your contacts loses their phone, the person who finds it can track your own location.
Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Share My Location. Toggle 'Share My Location' off.
You can also turn off your location services for your other apps. While it might be necessary when using a particular app, this feature should get turned off most of the time. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. You can then choose each app and turn off its location services.
You should also go to the System Services option and turn off the location services in the next menu.
Consider Your Apps
You want to always review the apps that you have on your phone. There can be apps that can hack your data and share it with third parties. Always review an app before you download/purchase it from the App Store.
As a general rule, you want to choose one that's from a reputable developer. You should also never download apps that have low user ratings.
You also want to consider the data that can be stolen from an app. Assume your iPhone was stolen or lost at this very moment. What would the person who found it see? Can they access your photos? Can they access your bank accounts?
If you have financial apps you want to consider removing them if you don't need them. While PayPal on your iPhone might be convenient, you can access all the functions on your computer. While you might want to make quick trades with Robinhood, it's more secure to do this on your computer.
You want to consider if you can make do with removing your social media apps from your iPhone. Unless you need to use it on a regular basis, delete these apps. The exceptions are for apps such as Instagram that only work on smartphones. Even in such a case, you want to consider logging out of your account whenever it's not in use.
At least once every other month, have a look at all the apps on your iPhone. If there are any that you seldom use you might wish to consider deleting them altogether.
Messaging
You want to also have privacy options for messaging. First, you should turn off read receipts for your text messages and iMessage.
Go to Settings > Messages. Toggle off the Send Read Receipts option. This means that if you read a message, the sender will not receive a message stating that you have seen their message.
You also want to consider using alternative messaging apps. While WhatsApp has been one of the most popular alternatives, this is not always secure. This doesn't mean that you should disregard it altogether. As a popular messaging app, you might find improved security and encryption measures in the future.
You can also use Signal as a messaging system. This app deletes a message that you receive/send after a set duration. This is often used for sharing sensitive data such as passwords. Telegram is another popular encrypted messaging system. It works well for both direct messages and group messaging.
It's wise to delete older messages when you no longer need them. You want to consider the worst-case scenario if someone else reads your messages. To be on the safe side, delete your messages and conversations once in a while.
What Else to Delete
To protect your personal data, you should delete things once in a while. Once you've backed up your photos and videos, you should delete them from your iPhone.
The same goes for deleting your email messages. If you can clear data from individual apps, consider doing this when you can.
Selling an iPhone
Finally, for data protection, you want to consider the right steps before you sell an iPhone. First, you should read our tutorial on how to reset your iPhone and back up its data.
This lets you save your personal data and then remove it from your iPhone before you sell it. You want to make sure you secure data before handing your device over!
Protect Data at All Times
Now that you know how to protect data on your iPhone, please share this guide with others. We always recommend researching more methods on how to protect what's on your iPhone.
This can include using Find My Phone, installing a data recovery app, and much more. In fact, if you'd like to read more great content on making the most out of your iPhone check out some of our other articles!
