Consider This: Cell Phone Privacy and Security

Because of how fast our technology is advancing we are faced with new problems when it comes to cell phones. There are certain things that we as cell phone users are going to need to worry about and watch out for when it comes to our cell phones safety and privacy. But even though we need to watch out for these things many of them are also good features that can be put to use in a variety of ways.

Here are some things that you should worry about and watch for with cell phone safety and privacy.

Number one:

One thing that you need to watch for is that your employer is monitoring you through your cell phone. You need to be aware of the fact that if you are using a phone or vehicle provided by your employer, under the current law your employer can use GPS to monitor you during work hours. But they can not monitor your behavior after you leave work, basically they can only track you during business hours.

Number two:

Parents can actually monitor where their children are at with the GPS feature on most phones. This allows parents to know where there children are and some programs even allow you to send messages to your children if they are too far from where they are supposed to be, and the programs will allow the parents to receive a text message if a stranger or hacker tries to locate their child through the service.

Number three:

Another thing that you need to watch out for is losing your cell phone or having it stolen. What you need to do to prevent somebody from downloading programs to your cell phone or obtaining your confidential information without your permission is to consider locking your phone when you are not using it or creating a password for phone access. Another option you have is installing software that allows you to remotely lock the phone or erase the data if the phone is stolen or lost. Some cell phone providers may also offer remote access that will either lock the phone or erase the data.

Number four:

Another thing that you need to watch out for is getting rid of your old phone, many times this happens when people are replacing their older phones with something new. But there are certain precautions that you are going to want to take when replacing the phone so that you can still protect your privacy. What you need to be aware of is that your personal information needs to be permanently deleted.  What this means is that on most cell phones the process for deleting your information is more complicated than simply selecting a delete function.  In fact, deleting information from a cell phone is similar to deleting information from a computer; when you are choosing to delete information, what you are doing is basically creating new space, but the data is retained until enough new information is added to write over the old information.  So if you want to permanently delete your information follow the instructions in your manual, call the manufacturer or consult your employer. 

Number five:

Another thing that you want to watch out for is a fast draining battery. Usually what this means is that your phone has been infected with some type of virus through your Bluetooth connection. In order to find out how to remove viruses from your phone you are going to need to talk to your cell phone provider. But the best way to make sure that this doesn’t happen is to not download anything to your phone that doesn’t come from a trusted source because in order to get a virus on a cell phone you have to actually click yes to install the document or application.