The Privacy Settings Worth Changing on Every Device You Own
Most of us spend years setting up new phones, laptops, tablets, browsers, and apps without ever seriously looking at their privacy settings. We tap “Allow,” accept default options, and move on because we want the device to work. Over time, however, those tiny decisions add up. Apps gain access to your location, microphone, photos, contacts, browsing activity, and other information they may not actually need.
Improving your privacy does not mean disappearing from the internet or turning every useful feature off. It means being more intentional about what your devices collect, which apps can access it, and what happens to that information afterward. A few changes can significantly reduce unnecessary data collection without making your technology frustrating to use.
Start With App Permissions
One of the most useful privacy checks you can make is reviewing app permissions. Phones and computers increasingly provide centralized privacy controls showing which apps have access to sensitive features such as your camera, microphone, location, contacts, photos, Bluetooth, and local network.
Look at these permissions individually and ask a simple question: does this app genuinely need this access to perform the function I use it for? A navigation app obviously needs location access while you are navigating. A photo-editing app may need access to selected photos. A simple shopping or entertainment app, however, probably does not need permanent access to your precise location, microphone, contacts, and entire photo library.
Removing unnecessary permissions does not mean you have to remove the app. In many cases, you can simply grant access only when the app is being used or allow access to selected photos rather than your entire library.
Change Location Access From “Always”
Location information is particularly revealing because it can show where you live, where you work, which businesses you visit, and how you move throughout the day. Yet many apps request location access even when location is only a minor part of their functionality.
For most apps, “while using the app” is a better default than permanent background access. You can also disable precise location when an approximate location is enough. A weather app may need to know your general area, for example, but it usually does not need your exact position within a few meters.
Some services genuinely benefit from background location access, including certain navigation, safety, and device-finding tools. The goal is not to disable location completely. It is to reserve continuous access for the handful of apps where it actually provides something valuable.
Review Camera and Microphone Permissions
Camera and microphone permissions deserve their own review because people often grant them once and forget about them. Video-calling apps clearly need both. A social platform may need them when you are recording content. Many other applications have little reason to maintain that access.
Modern operating systems usually display an indicator when the camera or microphone is active. Pay attention to those signals. If an indicator appears unexpectedly, check which application triggered it and reconsider its permissions.
It is also worth remembering that denying permission today does not necessarily mean denying it forever. If an app needs the microphone later, your device can ask again. There is little reason to grant permanent access simply because you might use the feature someday.
Limit Ad Tracking and Personalization
Much of the data collected across websites and apps exists to build advertising profiles. Those profiles can incorporate interests, searches, interactions, approximate locations, purchases, and other behavioral signals.
Both mobile operating systems and many online accounts now provide controls for advertising personalization and tracking. Turning personalized advertising off does not usually eliminate advertisements. Instead, it limits the degree to which your activity is used to tailor them.
You should also review individual social media and search accounts. Some platforms maintain extensive advertising preference pages containing inferred interests and activity used for personalization. Even if you continue using the service, reducing unnecessary personalization can limit one avenue through which your behavior is continuously categorized.
Stop Giving Every App Your Entire Photo Library
Photo permissions have become more granular, and that is worth taking advantage of. If you are uploading one profile picture, an app does not necessarily need permanent access to every image and video stored on your phone.
Where supported, choose options that allow access only to selected photos. You can add additional images later if necessary.
Your photo library can contain far more information than it appears to at first glance: family photographs, screenshots of conversations, documents, travel information, receipts, children’s photos, and other personal material. Treating access to that library as a meaningful permission rather than a harmless default is a good privacy habit.
Check What Your Browser Is Allowed to Remember
Your browser is one of the biggest gateways between your device and the wider internet, so its privacy settings deserve attention. Review controls relating to third-party cookies, cross-site tracking, pop-ups, website permissions, and browsing data.
It is also worth reviewing which websites have been granted access to your location, camera, microphone, and notifications. Websites can accumulate permissions just like apps, and months later you may have dozens of sites with privileges you no longer remember granting.
Privacy-focused browser protections can reduce cross-site tracking, but avoid assuming that private or incognito mode makes you anonymous. Private browsing is primarily designed to limit what is stored locally after the session. Websites, internet providers, employers on managed networks, and other parties may still be able to observe aspects of your activity.
Turn Off Notifications You Don’t Need
Notifications may not immediately sound like a privacy issue, but they can reveal surprising amounts of information. Messages, verification codes, banking alerts, appointment reminders, email subjects, and other sensitive information can appear directly on a locked screen.
Consider changing lock-screen notification settings so sensitive content remains hidden until the device is unlocked. You can still see that an app has sent a notification without displaying the full message to anyone who happens to look at your screen.
This is particularly useful if you regularly leave your phone on a desk, travel frequently, or use devices around coworkers, friends, or strangers.
Protect Your Lock Screen Properly
Privacy settings matter much less if someone can simply open your device. Use a strong passcode or password and enable biometric authentication where appropriate.
Avoid extremely predictable PINs such as repeated digits, birthdays, or simple sequences. Convenience matters—you need to unlock your phone dozens of times a day—but modern fingerprint and facial recognition systems can make strong device security relatively painless.
Also check what can be accessed while the device remains locked. Depending on the operating system, features such as voice assistants, notification replies, connected-device controls, or wallet functions may be available without fully unlocking the device. Decide which conveniences you actually want accessible from the lock screen.
Review Your Cloud Backups
Phones and laptops increasingly store information in cloud services automatically. This is incredibly useful when a device is lost or damaged, but it also means your information may exist in more places than you realize.
Check what your devices are backing up. Photos, messages, application data, documents, passwords, and device settings may all be synchronized automatically. Make sure the account protecting those backups uses a strong, unique password and multi-factor authentication.
You should also review old devices connected to your accounts. A laptop you sold three years ago or a phone you no longer own should not necessarily remain listed as a trusted device indefinitely.
Remove Apps You No Longer Use
Old apps are easy to ignore because they disappear into folders and rarely demand attention. But an application you have not opened for a year provides very little value while potentially retaining permissions, stored information, and access to an account you created long ago.
Periodically deleting unused applications is one of the simplest forms of digital housekeeping. While you are doing it, consider closing accounts for services you know you will never use again rather than merely deleting their apps.
The fewer unnecessary services connected to your personal information, the smaller your overall digital footprint becomes.
Turn On Automatic Security Updates
Privacy and security are closely connected. A perfectly configured privacy menu cannot protect information if the underlying device contains a known security vulnerability.
Enable automatic operating-system and application updates wherever practical. Security updates frequently fix vulnerabilities that attackers could otherwise exploit to gain access to devices or information. Delaying them indefinitely because the update notification is annoying is rarely a worthwhile trade.
The same principle applies to routers, smart televisions, cameras, speakers, and other connected devices. If something connects to the internet, check whether it receives software or firmware updates and whether those updates can happen automatically.
Don’t Forget Your Smart Devices
Phones and laptops receive most of the attention, but modern homes can contain dozens of connected devices. Smart televisions, speakers, watches, doorbells, cameras, thermostats, and even appliances may collect information or communicate with cloud services.
Review the privacy options for devices that contain microphones or cameras in particular. Disable features you never use and change default passwords when applicable. If a smart device has an associated account, protect that account with multi-factor authentication when available.
It is also worth asking whether every object needs to be connected in the first place. Sometimes the strongest privacy setting is simply not enabling a feature you do not need.
Make Multi-Factor Authentication the Default
One of the most effective privacy improvements does not live inside a traditional privacy menu at all. Multi-factor authentication adds another layer of protection when someone attempts to access your account with a stolen password.
Prioritize your most important accounts first: your primary email, password manager, cloud storage, financial services, and major social accounts. Where available, authenticator apps, passkeys, or hardware security keys can provide stronger protection than relying solely on SMS codes.
Your email account is especially important because it often acts as the recovery mechanism for everything else. Someone who gains access to it may be able to reset passwords for numerous other accounts.
Privacy Is Mostly About Defaults
You do not need to spend every day worrying about digital privacy. In fact, the best privacy setup is one you configure properly and then rarely have to think about.
Spend half an hour reviewing permissions, location access, tracking preferences, lock-screen information, cloud accounts, browser settings, and unused applications. Then repeat the process every few months or whenever you set up a new device.
The goal is not perfect privacy. For most people, that would require sacrificing many of the conveniences that make modern technology useful. The goal is much simpler: stop giving away information automatically when there is no good reason to do so.
Every permission should have a purpose. Every connected account should still be useful. Every piece of information you share should represent a choice rather than a forgotten default. That small shift—from automatically allowing access to deliberately choosing it—is one of the most practical ways to take back control of your digital life.
