Smartphones have come to define us by being the portal to our online identity and as such should be treated with care and secured against any wrongdoing online (hacking) or offline (stolen). If you are not careful, losing your smartphone may mean
more than just a loss in contacts and phone numbers. We’re talking about your social media accounts, your synced files, important documents, your emails, photos and messages.
Your entire information is traceable and downloadable and may be shared all over the World Wide Web if you are not careful enough.
(Image Source: HDW)
While we’d love it if people don’t mess around with other people’s personal information, putting morale aside,
this is the virtual world where
thieves and hackers hide behind anonymity and are hard to trace. There is no one better to protect your own data, than you. We hope these tips and tricks will be of help in that endeavor.
1. Do Not Save All Of Your Passwords
Many users tend to save
their passwords to online services and sites on
their device, never once thinking about what it would mean to a person
who got their hands on the phone. Avoid having all important passwords
saved in your device particularly when it comes to banking or payment
apps.
2. Use Android In-built Security
If you are running on Jelly Bean, you can have a
screen lock and
encryption enabled to further enhance your security. There are many types of screen locks available for you to choose from such as
password,
pin,
pattern and
face unlock,
available in your Android settings. Even when setting pins or pattern
locks, try not to make it easy for hackers to guess your password.
3. Lock Your Apps
It is necessary to lock your apps, especially the ones
holding private information that you wish nobody but you could see.
This is a second layer of security to prevent anyone from using your
lost device particularly if they have managed to bypass your locked
Android.
You can use a free app like
App Lock
for this exact purpose. The idea here is not to lock every single app
in your device, just really data-laden ones like your email apps or file
managers.
While you at it, avoid using a combination of a pin or pattern lock
that can be traceable from the smudges of your screen (Yes, it is
traceable).
4. The importance of app permissions
Before you begin installing an app from Google Play, a list of
requested permissions will pop up to show you what permission the app
requires. Apps require permissions to do things but not all of them are
necessary.
Always read through the permissions to make sure they make sense and
correspond to what the app actually does eg. an alarm app does not require a permission to access your text messages. This is a real important step because
not all apps in the Play Store are safe.
While you’re at it, make it a habit to read the comments as well as
the rating of the app that you are going to download. This helps you
understand more about what the app really does without trying it out
firsthand.
5. Securing Your Network
One of the most important thing in protecting your Android is to
secure your network. Try to avoid using public WiFi whenever you want to
do something important like doing your banking online. As long you are
sharing the same network with the public, they can easily sniff out your packets and translate it into actual data of your private information i.e. your passwords.
You can protect your information by using apps like
Hideninja VPN so that
your outgoing connection is always encrypted, making it harder for anyone to sabotage your data. If you suspect that your device is being attacked,
WiFi Protector can help fend off these attackers. To further enhance your network security you can apply settings from
SecDroid but note that this app is only for rooted phones.
6. Use Mobile Security App
It will make your
job easier to have
an app that handles most of your security issue. Find a mobile security app that you are comfortable using, for example:
Lookout Security & Antivirus and
avast! Mobile Security. Even with a security app, you shouldn’t let your guard down as
Android malware is getting stronger and more rampant, which brings us to the next tip.
7. Create Multiple User Account To Protect Privacy
If you own an Android tablet and have to share it with a sibling, a spouse, or your kids, having
multiple user accounts will help each of you protect your privacy.
In Jelly Bean for tablet, there is an option for you to create multiple
user accounts. You can create another general account for anyone who
wants to use your device. The option is under the
Settings > Users section.
8. Prepare A Backup Of Your Data
A backup of your precious data is a must-have in the day and age of
smartphones. Picture the worst case scenario where your Android device
has been stolen or hacked. The last thing you can do is perform a remote
wipe (see #10).
Without a backup, you will lose all your information in your device.
Even if you could retrieve your stolen phone, chances are that
hackers that have managed to access your device will render it useless.
If you have a backup however, you can still
restore your Android device back to its original state. You can choose to backup important information to the Cloud, your desktop or even to a flash drive, for insurance.
9. Track Your Lost Device
So you have a backup already but you really want to get your lost device back. Well, as the smartphone industry would have it,
your phone is built to be trackable, via GPS. The catch is, you have to enable GPS on your phone for it to be tracked. Fret not because, there are plenty of
device-tracking apps for Android that can help you locate your lost or stolen device, some can even turn on the GPS on your phone remotely.
10. Enable Remote Wipe
So you are at the point where you have everything installed and ready to go. But, you still need one last feature –
the ability for you to wipe your device remotely.
This is necessary, especially when you are sure that your Android is
lost (forever). There’s no crying over spilt milk now – we can only
prevent them from turning it into cheese.
I recommend
3CX Mobile Device Manager because it is free and easy to use. You can sign up for the account
here and let just hope that the day you need to use their remote wipe feature will never come.
At
the top of your screen, you will see notifications which report
calendar events, alarms, incoming mails or other ongoing events. Swipe
down from the top of the screen to reveal the list of notifications,
then swipe up from the O-sign to hide it.
. Touching this icon is equivalent to running the Settings app.
and select 'Save to bookmarks'.
, then the Bookmarks button 
.
On the page you often visit, tap the Menu button
Each
time you send out an email using the Email app, you can have a mail
signature, such as 'Sent from my mobile device', automatically added at
the end of your message.
You
might have a lot of your files you want to browse through, copy, rename
or delete them on your mobile device like the way you do in Windows.
Unfortunately you can't do much as Android 4.0 has not had a built-in
file manager, but you can easily install a third party app from the
Google Play Store.
What
if you need to copy files and folders between your mobile device and
PC? You can do so by connecting your mobile device to your PC using a
USB cable provided. Better still, you can connect them wirelessly via a
local WiFi network to do the same or even more without needing a cable.
Using
the Android system, you can automatically back up your data, such as a
list of apps you've installed, the words you've added to dictionary,
your Wi-Fi passwords, Browser bookmarks and other settings via your
Google account on the servers.
While on the Alphabet keyboard:
This
looks simple but can be tricky sometimes when you use different apps.
In general, these steps can be used in Email or some other apps:
When
you're typing through, the system checks your spelling and suggests a
few words. Unless you've selected one of them, the highlighted suggested
word overwrites your word when you finish typing it followed by a
space, punctuation mark or return character. If you feel that's
annoying, you can turn off Auto-Correction.
next to 'Android keyboard'.
You can easily select a wallpaper from a collection of a few in your system and set it as wallpaper for your Home screens.
on the tray.
Touch and hold the icon you want to create a shortcut.
at the top right of a home screen to add a shortcut icon.
When
you install new apps to your Android, the system stacks up the icons
automatically without asking you to select a home screen. But you can
subsequently re-arrange the icons on the home screens and on the tray.
Touch and hold any icon for a second.
When running an app, you can minimize it by simply tapping the Home icon
.
Getting back to it is not just one click on the taskbar like the way
you do in Windows. But the Android way is pretty straightforward too.
to reveal the apps that you recently opened. (Note 2)
In
Android, you can set a file to open with a certain program by default
as you do in Windows. For example, if you have installed an image viewer
such as QuickPic, the system will ask you to select an app when you try
to open an image file (See the screenshot).
Installing
apps from the Google Play store to your Android device is convenient,
likewise removing them is pretty straightforward.
The Google Omnibox
does more than displaying the URL and allowing you to search. It is
also capable of performing mathematical calculations (as shown in the
picture) and even answer questions such as "how many cups are in 2
liters?" Try adding any math calculation now in the Omnibox without
pressing enter to have the results shown.
or "Menu" 
icon.
