Almost everyone owns and uses a smartphone daily. Smartphones are very convenient devices that help us get through our day to day activities with ease. You can use your smartphones in many ways such as for productivity, finance, communication, shopping, storage and sharing, social media, photography, business, dating, education purposes, entertainment, navigation, health and lifestyle, and so many other tasks. One thing that’s is unique in all these tasks is that they use the internet.

This means that everyone who owns a smartphone is transmitting massive data and information to and from the internet. Others are storing this data and information in their smartphones given that smartphones now have a storage capacity of up to 1TB. The more the information we share, the more the risks we expose ourselves as we attract malicious actors and given that some smartphones are not that secure, it’s riskier.

To avoid loss of data through privacy and security breaches, smartphone loss and even internet traffic interception by malicious actors, there are ways to safeguard your smartphone’s security and privacy.

Lock your device and your accounts

This is the first security and privacy mechanism that you should always implement on your smartphone. Without locking your device, anyone who gets hold of it can access any information they want, alter it or even delete. Use your devices security lock mechanisms such as passwords, passcodes, and other biometric authentication available to lock your device.

Extend the same courtesy to the accounts you have on your smartphones. Use unique passwords or your biometrics, e.g. passwordless logins in your apps and other online accounts you access via your smartphone.

Install reputable apps and give permissions carefully

Smartphones use apps to carry out tasks effectively. These apps can be downloaded from anywhere. As a good security practice always use the official stores to download and install apps. Also, download apps from reputable developers. Getting apps from other third-party stores might be a security and privacy risk as these apps might be loaded with various malware.

Apps also require various permissions to use various smartphones resources. Be careful on which permission you allow to a certain app. for instance, it doesn’t make sense for a calculator or a flashlight app to request access to contacts, SMS and phone, or even location services.

Regularly update your device and perform backups

Smartphone updates contain security patches for various vulnerabilities that have been discovered, and it’s, therefore, necessary to update your device and also your apps. also, set your phones to do regular backups of data

Enable the Find my Mobile feature

Smartphones usually have an in-built feature that lets you track or find your device in case you misplace or lose it. This feature also has other options like remotely wiping off your data in case you lose your phone and cannot recover it.