Mohin Talukder প্রকাশিত: ১৯ ডিসেম্বর, ২০২৪, ০৫:৩০ এএম
You can be tracked in many ways with your smartphone. But if you take care of it, you can reduce its amount.
We use phones throughout the day for work, business or personal reasons. However, it is not always understood that our daily activities on the phone are not always private.
Today we will discuss 3 different ways that someone's phone can be tracked. But before that let's see who, how can track your phone.
In what ways can your phone be tracked?
Phone tracking can happen in many unexpected ways. If someone has access to the device you are using, that person can easily activate the location-tracking feature on your phone. And the owner of the device will not even know if someone else has turned on the tracking. This makes the location-tracking features of many apps and phone operating systems a risk to people's safety.
In addition, your phone usage may be tracked by your workplace or employer. Especially in cases where your device is company issued. Even if your smartphone is connected to a corporate network, tracking you is possible
Additionally, many apps and phone services have built-in tracking features. These features are sometimes quite useful and necessary. For example, Android shows information about nearby areas based on the current location of its users. So that they know the area well. Apart from this, many people do not know that different apps track them in different areas.
A 2019 investigation by The New York Times tested 250 iPhone apps. Where products or services track users or not. The results show that almost two-thirds of them have collected information about the people concerned.
Communication service providers or SIM companies are also involved in phone tracking. That's because each phone sends personally identifiable information to company-owned cell towers. Although this is a necessary part of establishing the connection. Because phone companies must verify your location. Also you need to confirm that you are their customer However, research is still ongoing to complete this verification process while keeping your identity private.
How to know if your phone is being tracked?
Many people can identify some signs of phone tracking. For example they may notice, the device is slowing down. In addition, unexpected changes in performance are observed. However, tracking is not always so obvious.
As suggested by experts, you can dial different codes. Which will likely have some repercussions if the phone is tracked. For example: Dialing *#61# will tell you whether incoming calls are forwarded to another number or not. Similarly by dialing *#62# you can see if any diversion software is blocking various calls and texts from reaching you.
How to prevent your phone from being tracked?
Reducing phone tracking is easier than you think. But if you know about them.
Turning on flight mode and disabling GPS location settings
Turning on the phone's Airplane Mode feature blocks connections to cellular and Wi-Fi networks that help with tracking. First select flight mode. Then check the status of your phone's GPS or location feature Location settings are often turned off automatically after turning on flight mode. But it is better to check if it is closed or not. But turning off these features will prevent you from using your phone for calls or mobile data. But this is a quick way to stop tracking. But it is not ideal for long-term use.
Pay attention to the operating system settings
Those who are more concerned about app-based tracking. They can take some control over it from the operating system or OS-based settings. Recent versions of Apple's iOS offer options to turn off tracking for all apps or individual apps. Google also recently announced a similar feature called Privacy Sandbox for Android. This limits the transfer of personal data to third parties. Also it doesn't allow tracking activities on all apps.
Choose a privacy-focused browser
Most people put Google Chrome at the top of their choice as a web browser. But many people don't realize that it tracks users' online activities. But you can opt out of Google's tracking features through various steps.
Another option is to use a browser that tracks you less or not at all. These browsers will not give you personalized results when searching. which browsers with trackers give you. But these browsers will definitely give you more peace of mind about privacy.
Finally
You can first look at the above 3 tips to avoid tracking. But in addition to these, try to raise more awareness about how and when you are tracked. For example, carefully review contracts or similar documents before handing over a device from the workplace. There may be a mention of whether or not your boss can track your phone activity.