Whether you know it or not, much of your personal information is collected on the internet. Almost all the websites we visit and the apps we use track our browsing habits to learn about our preferences and behaviors for marketing purposes. If you value your privacy, you may want to know why apps track your online activity, and how to prevent this from happening. Stopping app tracking can be difficult, as there are many hurdles to jump and you will need to cover multiple platforms and devices. But don't worry, it is possible to get a little more privacy by investing a little time. In addition to managing the permissions you grant to apps, you can also install programs like VPNs that encrypt your information, making your browsing more private. Can
click here to get a totally free VPN and increase your privacy. Here's everything you need to know about how and why websites and apps track you. We also tell you about some ways to cancel this tracking.
How do companies collect and use data, and why is privacy important?
Mobile and web apps, as well as devices and websites are known to track our information. Some of the methods they use most often include the following:
Cookies
They are files that store information such as data ID and login ID of a device. These are used to track a user's online activity.
Location tracking
Most devices have GPS, which can be very useful for finding directions. But this function can give mobile apps our exact location 24 hours a day, and with it the owners of those apps can monitor us in real time and not just digitally.
Giving consent to data tracking
Sometimes some mobile apps hide within their permissions and agreements the acceptance of permissions that go beyond what they really need. And although sometimes they ask us for permission to show advertising, sometimes they don't. Furthermore, they hide such intentions in long forms and forms that the user does not read and only accepts to quickly install the application. If you have noticed how some ads follow you everywhere and also correspond to recent activities or searches on the Internet, it means that the previous tracking methods are working with your data. While targeted advertising can be useful at times, making it easier for us to find a product we need and are looking for, some companies use trackers to achieve much more than just our item preferences. For example, between the
information they can get is our browsing history, medical history, bank records, political, religious or sexual preferences. Even text messages or call log. This information in dangerous hands can harm us directly. All this has led to the fact that when entering a website we are asked or indicated if we want cookies to save our data. But this is not enough to protect our privacy, so it is necessary to disable tracking and here we explain how to do it.
How does your Android phone track you and how to disable app tracking on Android devices?
Data tracking is more complete when we talk about mobile devices. This is because it not only collects information about the websites we visit and the apps we use, but it can also access our location data. This means that they can know the places where we have been, where we live and even where we work. This is the main reason why many people disable mobile app tracking, especially on Android devices. The problem is that some apps need this data to work. For example, if it is a taxi app, it needs to tell the taxi driver how to get to your location. It is best to disable this function for applications that do not require it, such as some photo editing app. You can turn off your device's location, and when you give permissions to the apps you install, only give permission to see your location to those that do need it. It also disables sharing of diagnostic data. In your Android settings, go to the Privacy tab. There you can find disable sharing of diagnostic data with Google. This will prevent Google from receiving marketing information from you, so not only
you will not see annoying ads, but your browsing will be more private. In the advanced privacy section you will see a tab called Ads. There you can also cancel the personalization of ads within the apps to improve your privacy. Finally, use a VPN to browse, this way your information will be encrypted and they will not be able to take your browsing history, your IP address, or any data you leave online.