Privacy Awareness

Geolocation can be a great tool to help you find your way around. It is the function that allows map apps to give you direction and/or for your browser to easily suggest restaurants wherever you are currently located. However, it also means that the companies behind these apps can track you wherever you go and build a history of the places you like to visit. They may also in return suggest specific stores based on past history. So the important questions to ask yourself before activating that function are:

a) Do you really need to allow the app for your social media account to know where you are at all times?

b) Does this add to what you will experience with the app?

If you do not think the geolocation will add anything to your experience, chances are, it is probably better to leave it off. Keep in mind that it can always be changed in the future if you feel that turning it on may be more beneficial.

Do you need to grant camera access at all times?

Could you just turn it on when you need to make use of it?

What does it really mean to give an app your camera access?

By accessing your camera an app can capture videos and images with your device. Trustworthy apps most likely would do this when you request it, but some may require access at all times which may also give the app owner the ability to monitor or “see” you through your camera. That does not mean that all your images will be stored on their server, but it may in the case of malicious apps. Again, with this feature it is a question of benefits vs risks.

Voice-Activated Pizza Order?

That’s possible (and fun). However, to do that, you need to have your home address entered into a smart speaker (or other smart device), along with your password for your favourite online pizza delivery service, and of course your credit card information. Depending upon how you have things set up with your smart devices, you could unintentionally be giving the ability to order and pay for things through the device, and not limited to just pizza, to anyone else who is within speaking distance of one of your smart devices.

Allowing Access to Your Microphone

Microphone access is necessary when you want to give your device verbal commands. Think of Siri, Alexa, Google assistant, etc. In order for your device to respond when using a voice command, whether that is "OK Google" or "Hey Siri", that device needs to monitor sound and have the microphone running at all times; this is something to consider. It doesn’t mean that companies keep track of all that is said and sounds around your device, but it could. Although big companies try to keep most of your data private, other tools could use the same parameters for malicious reasons. Many smart devices will actually have a physical button that you can switch on and off to ensure that the device is only listening when you want it to. Most of us don't really have to worry about this as we have casual conversations, but when you think of the pizza delivery example, we have to pause and think… Do we need those features to always be turned on? Could you just turn it on when you need to make use of it?

Many devices will ask to be allowed access to your contacts. In some cases this is essential; telling your device to “Call Kish” wouldn’t be possible unless your device could access your contact list in order to figure out what Kish’s phone number was. (also see access to microphone). However, now that device and it's linked systems have access to all of your contacts too. Once again, it is a question of balance.

There is online browsing history, but we also now have to keep in mind that many AI systems keep a history of the requests that you’ve made in order to learn from your commands and make better suggestions or take better actions the next time around. Many of them have the ability to delete all of the commands you have made, or even just within a specific timeframe, with a simple verbal command. Granted that you will have to get used to thinking about phrasing your commands in a way that makes sense to the device, but that is not too difficult and can help you to ensure that your requests are not stored online. As with many things, it is a question of what level of access you want to give your devices.

At Home

Having easy access to wifi at home for you and your guests is obviously something that we would all want. However, in order to make sure that the safety and privacy of your household and your guests, ensuring that the wifi connection is secure is something that we all need to remember. Many of the times you hear on the news (or social media) about someone’s device being hacked and personal information being stolen is because their wifi connection was not secure and hackers were able to use that connection to access the device. Remember to also set a strong password for your wifi router and also for its administration access; don’t use the default “admin” password that can oftentimes found online. Doing this will help protect all the devices that use your wifi; smartphones, personal virtual assistants, tablets, desktop computers, etc.

FREE WIFI

When you go to a store or public location that offers free wifi, is it really free? What are you giving away for that free internet? Do you have to accept to be a part of a mailing list from the company? Sometimes that might be ok for you, but maybe not. Is that wi-fi secure? Are you sure that the free wifi at your favourite place is the genuine free wifi access provided by the m, or just someone pretending to be them; using their system to monitor what you are doing and skimming your personal information?

When you download a popular program to your computer or app for your smart device, are you sure that you are downloading the official version? Often when an app or program becomes popular, hackers will download an official copy, modify it for their own purposes, then upload it to their own cloned site. Then when people do a quick search for “download [app name]”, they simply follow any of the results and inadvertently download the modified version, installing it on their system and granting the hackers access to their devices without even realizing it. Make sure that when you download programs or apps that you are downloading official versions put out by the official company.