Urgent privacy warning to BILLIONS of Android users to check WiFi settings now – don’t miss it | The Sun
BILLIONS of Android users have been warned to check their WiFi settings NOW.
Simply turning off your WiFi doesn’t actually mean it may be fully off and could be running in the background.
Users need to go Location in their phone settings and pick Location Services, scroll down the page to find WiFi scanning.
Anyone wanting another level of privacy may want to turn that off.
Techie TikTok star @tatechtips issued the advice in his latest video.
In the short clip, he said: “Turning off your WiFi, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve turned off your WiFi.
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“So if you head over to your phone’s settings and go to ‘Location’ and then select ‘Location Services’ and here you can see ‘WiFi scanning’.
“It says ‘Let apps use WiFi for location detection even when WiFi is turned off.
“So that means that when you’ve turned your WiFi off but you’ve got your scanning on your phone is still constantly sending probe requests for WiFi.
“So if you want an extra level of privacy turn your WiFi scanning off as well.”
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The video has already picked up more than 51,700 likes and attracted over 600 comments.
Many commentators wrote to thank the expert for his advice.
One simply said: “Thanks. More privacy the better. Turned it off immediately.”
Another added: ‘Thank you I've always wanted to turn it off but never knew how and was too lazy to google it.”
A third wrote: “Just turned it off. Thank you, sir. I got a Motorola it works.”
Earlier this month, the TikTok star revealed how turning on disappearing messages in WhatsApp could be a life-saver in the future.
WHATSAPP FEATURE
The feature automatically "unsends" texts – to avoid a massive log of all your messages dwelling in the ether.
Open your app on mobile and then go into Settings > Account > Privacy.
Look for Disappearing Messages and then set the toggle to the On position.
Then choose a time period for messages to disappear – 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days.
A message will appear in the chat confirming that Disappearing Messages has been turned on.
GOOGLE CHROME
In June, Google Chrome users were urged to protect their personal data by going through its “Privacy Guide”.
It allows you to shore up your account's security without having to trawl through the browser's settings.
Users are guided through Chrome's controls for cookies and browsing history.
Changing those controls restricts the data that Google and the websites you visit store about you.
Privacy Guide also let you tweak Google's Safe Browsing tool, which warns if you're about to access a suspected dodgy website.
To try Privacy Guard for yourself, head into in your Chrome settings by clicking the three dots on the top-right corner of your browser.
Go to Privacy and security and then Privacy Guard.
If you don't have time to go through the whole guide at once, Google saves your progress as you go.
Chrome also offers a handy "Password Checkup" service that let you know if any of your online credentials have been compromised.
To try it out, open Chrome and click the three dots in the top right-hand corner of the browser to go to Settings.
Then click on the key symbol to be taken to the password options.
Here you should see a section called "Saved Passwords" and it will contain all the websites for which you have saved your login details.
Then click "Check passwords" and Chrome will scan your details and let you know if any have been compromised.
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It will also tell you if any of your passwords are weak.
If this is the case you can click on a link to make the passwords stronger.
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