Today all Internet users are aware that no matter where they go, they will be tracked. And it may sound unrealistic to some, but the truth is, as long as you’re using a smart device, you can be tracked and monitored without any problem.
Every time you use an application, visit a website or just use your phone, you leave traces of your activity, Y these are what make it possible for you to be traced so easily.
Fortunately, there are several things you can do to set up your phone so that you can minimize the amount of information or data exposed. In this guide, we will show you how you can prevent your Android phone from being tracked.
Table of Contents
Turn off location, WiFi and mobile data
The easiest and most effective way to prevent your Android phone from being tracked it is simply by turning off location, WiFi and mobile data. Restricting these services basically makes your phone unable to connect to the outside world.
And in case you want to go one step further, you can also opt for turn on airplane mode to also block your telephone network.
Although this method is a fairly effective way to avoid being located, it also turns out to be very impractical. Since, obviously, by not having an Internet connection or a telephone network, your mobile is practically useless to do other things. However, you can resort to this method for those cases in which you need peace of mind
Disable Google data collection
It is not news to anyone that Google stores a large amount of your personal information and data. And it may be that this omnipresence is invasive for some users who see as much of your online life is monitored.
Still, users have some options to put certain limits on Google regarding the data it collects about you. This data falls into three categories:
- Web and app activity: basically it is the data collected from your activity on the web pages and in the apps you use.
- Location History: It is where a record of all the places you visit is kept.
- YouTube History: everything you do within YouTube is stored separately.
To deactivate or pause data collection, all you have to do is access the section of Data and privacy from your Google account. From there you can configure your account so that Google stop collecting all this information.
For example, in case you wanted stop Google from continuing to access your YouTube activity, You just have to go to Manage your Google Account> Data and privacy> YouTube history> Deactivate> Pause.
The procedure to prevent Google from collecting your YouTube History, is the same that you will have to follow to disable Location History and Web & App Activity.
The same way, I will leave you a link to an article where we explain the procedure for pausing Web & App Activity in more detail.
Delete your activity from Google
Now, in addition to preventing Google from continuing to collect your information, you’ll also want to delete your history.
There are different ways in which you can delete your Google history. You can do a partial or complete deletion of your history and you can even schedule it to be deleted automatically after a certain time.
In case you want to delete your YouTube History, In the History Settings section, select YouTube History > Manage History. Once there you will see the different options to delete your history:
- press automatic deletion so that your history is automatically deleted after a certain time. You can set your history to be deleted after 3, 18 or 36 months.
- press Erase to display a menu of delete history options. Among the options, you can choose to delete your activity for the day, delete your history within a defined period, or delete all activity.
Do the same with history. Web and app activity and Location History. Although, if you want a more detailed explanation, we also have an article where we explain how to delete your Location History.
Turn off personalized search results
If you have personalized search results turned on, every time you do a search on Google, this will use the information it has collected about you, to give you results related to your location, interests or any information that Google has previously stored about you. By deactivating this option, you will be limiting the tracking of your phone.
You should keep in mind that when you do this, when you search for something on Google, it will no longer reflect the results that are considered relevant according to your activity, but rather, only general results will be displayed.
- Sign in to your Google account and press your profile picture.
- Select the option of Setting.
- Now press Personalized Results.
- Uncheck the box for Show personal results.
In this way, you will disable personalized results when searching on Google. In case you want to activate this option again, you just have to check the Show personal results box again.
Turn off ad personalization
Having this option enabled you will be giving Google reasons to continue collecting and storing your personal information. Disabling this option does not mean that you will stop seeing ads completely. You’ll still see ads, but they won’t be as relevant to you.
- Open the Google app and tap your profile picture.
- press Manage your Google account and go to the tab Data and privacy.
- In Ad SettingsChoose Personalization of ads.
- Uncheck the box to disable personalized ads, and then select Deactivate.
Delete your advertising ID
The advertising ID is a unique identification that all Android devices have with information about their owner. This ID is the one used by applications to show you ads and personalized content.
By removing this ID you can enjoy greater privacy, since, apps will no longer have access to your data. Deleting your advertising ID also doesn’t mean you’ll stop seeing ads in apps. The procedure you must follow is as follows:
- go to Setting.
- Choose Google.
- Press Advertisements.
- Choose Clear Advertising ID.
- And finally, confirm the action by pressing Clear Advertising ID again.
- In case you want to recover your ID, select Reset Advertising ID.
Remove unused app permissions
There are a variety of permissions, such as your location, camera, microphone, calendar, files, and call logs, that you instinctively grant to apps when you install them.
Through these permissions, applications they can access your data, store it and use it for advertising purposes. Fortunately, you can remove these permissions anytime you want. Depending on the phone, the procedure may be a little different, but basically it is as follows:
- Enter the Setting.
- Then go to Apps and notifications.
- Choose Application permissions.
- Tap a permission to see which apps are using it.
- disable the permission what you wish.
- If you get a warning, select Deny anyway.
Uninstall apps you don’t need
It is a simple rule of thumb that the more apps you have, the more apps have access to your personal information. Therefore, to minimize the chances of being tracked, it’s a good idea to uninstall apps you don’t use from your phone.
No matter what kind of app it is, if you just have it on your phone taking up space and unused, It’s always best to remove it.
How to disable apps that cannot be uninstalled
You should keep in mind that There are some pre-installed apps on your mobile that cannot be uninstalled. In that case, you have the option to disable them to prevent them from running in the background. Depending on the phone, the procedure may be a little different, but basically it is as follows:
- Go into Setting.
- go to Apps and notifications.
- Choose App information.
- Locate the app you want to disable and select it.
- Choose Disable.
Another option would be root your android phone. This is the only way you could remove these pre-installed apps.
Switch to privacy-friendly alternatives
Since privacy is becoming an increasingly important issue, various developers have set out to create privacy-friendly apps and websites. You can use these options as an alternative to your current applications.
For example, you can use brave instead of Google Chrome and change WhatsApp to Signal. Do you want more options? Here we leave you 150 free code applications for Android that are 100% safe and private.
It will always be possible for you to be tracked
Something you should be very clear about is that, I feel totally honest, it is practically impossible for you to become invisible on the Internet. Just using a phone is enough for you to leave traces of your trail in the interconnected network.
It does not matter if you are using applications that promise to respect your privacy, or how much information you try to hide from Google, there will always be a chance that you will be tracked.
In fact, there are a good number of lawsuits against Google, where those affected claim that the company tracks its users even though they disable location history and other similar settings.
This is the unfortunate side effect of being surrounded by increasingly integrated technology ecosystems. The more connected you are to technology, the easier it will be to track you.
However, by following the advice that we leave you in this article, you would be reducing the amount of exposed datatherefore, it will not be so easy to track you.
