Remember those days when you had to take your wallet with you, which nearly always had cash, a kind of photo identification, your insurance card, your credit cards, pictures of your children, and maybe a backup check? Nowadays, you have to consider whether or not you actually need to own a wallet.
Your phone does it all.
That being said, nothing in our technologically advanced society is ever completely private or protected, if there is one thing that can be said to be universally true.
Experts advise against storing these 5 items on your smart device because you should always anticipate that a situation may arise when someone could gain access to it.
1) Fingerprint –
Avoid being lured to unlock your phone using your fingerprint if you truly want to keep it safe. There are various instances in which someone may use your fingerprint to force a log-in while they are in your immediate vicinity.
While there is nothing stopping a criminal from forcing you to enter your password, the truth is that a phone that needs a password to open is safer since it involves more steps.
Additionally, there is always a chance that someone may steal your fingerprint. Although there is a little danger, the loss would be enormous, so you should give utilising your fingerprint considerable thought.
2) Very personal/intimate pictures or videos –
Perhaps you do a great job of keeping your social media profiles as secret and private as you can, but what about the pictures and videos you save on your phone?
You shouldn’t save any pictures on your smartphone that you wouldn’t want your other people to see, especially if your phone’s data may be kept in the cloud.
However, if you feel the need to save those explicit images anywhere, think about keeping them on a computer that only you have the password to access rather than on your phone. You might also think about keeping them in a password-protected app or album.
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3) Face –
One may argue that using your face as a password substitute is safer than using your fingerprint if they’ve ever had trouble getting their phone to identify their face while they’re holding it at an awkward angle.
Even if that could be the case, using a password alone to unlock your phone is still safer than utilizing face recognition.
4) Banking app –
You are not mistaken if you believe that internet banking is the best thing ever. However, using internet banking to conduct business anywhere and at any time has a price: it compromises your privacy.
If you keep your bank account on your phone, you run the danger of losing control of it in the event that you misplace your phone or simply lose track of an old phone you aren’t using anymore.
You can think about staying away from using your phone for internet banking to limit the danger. Do it on a computer that is always in your house instead.
Just make sure to choose a strong, unique password to activate your banking app if you discover that you really must carry your online banking with you wherever you go.
5) Your residential address –
Finding your house from anywhere is really simple and convenient if you store your residential address on the navigation apps you use the most. But it can also make you more defenseless.
If a burglar manages to get their hands on your phone, they may easily use Waze or Google Maps to check what you’ve marked as “home” or “work,” depending on the situation.
Additionally, it is not impossible that your home or workplace address may be compromised or otherwise made public.
Give would-be offenders a code word as an identification, such as “gym,” if you enjoy having such addresses close at hand so you don’t have to type them in again. This will at least make discovering your home or work address a little bit more difficult.
Apart from these, things like passwords or any confidential information must not be stored in your phone for safety purposes.
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature Image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: Reader’s Digest, Twisted Sifter, TOI
Find the blogger: @SreemayeeN
This post is tagged under: smartphones, storage, cloud, fingerprint, safety
Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.
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