Privacy Settings: Device and App Privacy Checklist
Introduction
Digital privacy is about controlling what information you share, with whom, and under what conditions. Most devices and applications default to maximum data collection — companies profit from understanding your behavior, location, and preferences. Changing your privacy settings is a one-time investment that permanently reduces your digital footprint and limits how much of your personal data is collected, stored, and potentially exposed in breaches.
This guide provides a comprehensive privacy settings checklist covering smartphones, browsers, app permissions, social media, and auxiliary services. Follow the steps that apply to your devices and threat model. You do not need to implement every recommendation — even partial adoption significantly improves your privacy posture.
Smartphone Privacy
Smartphones are the most data-rich devices most people own. They carry location history, communication logs, browsing habits, health data, and biometric information. Both iOS and Android provide extensive privacy controls, but the default settings favor data collection.
iOS Privacy Settings
Apple has positioned privacy as a differentiator and provides granular controls. Start by opening Settings > Privacy & Security and working through each section.
Advertising tracking: Navigate to Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising and toggle off Personalized Ads. This stops Apple from using your app downloads, search queries, and device information to serve targeted advertisements in the App Store and Apple News.
App Tracking Transparency: Navigate to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking and toggle off Allow Apps to Request to Track. This globally blocks apps from asking for permission to track you across other companies’ apps and websites. Individual app tracking requests are automatically denied.
Location Services: Navigate to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services. Review each app in the list. Set most to While Using the App or Never. Only navigation, weather, and ride-sharing apps genuinely need location access. If an app requests location and has no clear reason for it, set it to Never.
System services: Scroll to the bottom of Location Services and tap System Services. Disable everything except Find My iPhone and Emergency Calls & SOS. Services like Location-Based Suggestions, Location-Based Alerts, and Popular Near Me silently send location data to Apple without any direct benefit to you.
Analytics and improvements: Navigate to Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements and toggle off everything. This stops Apple from sending usage data, crash reports, and iCloud analytics to its servers.
App Privacy Report: Enable Settings > Privacy & Security > App Privacy Report. This logs how apps access your data — contacts, photos, location, camera, microphone — and lets you review which apps are accessing sensitive data and how often.
Android Privacy Settings
Android provides comparable privacy controls, though the exact menu paths vary by manufacturer and Android version. The settings below apply to stock Android 13 and later.
Advertising ID: Navigate to Settings > Google > Ads and toggle on Opt out of Ads Personalization. Tap Reset advertising ID to clear your current identifier.
Location permissions: Navigate to Settings > Location > App-level permissions. Review each app and set most to While in Use or Deny. Android’s location permission model is similar to iOS — apps that do not need location should be denied.
Google Activity Controls: Visit myactivity.google.com on your device or in any browser. Under Activity Controls, turn off Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History. These three settings control the vast majority of data Google stores about you. You can also instruct Google to auto-delete future activity after 3, 18, or 36 months.
Permission manager: Navigate to Settings > Privacy > Permission Manager. Android groups permissions by type — Camera, Microphone, SMS, Phone, etc. — and shows which apps have each permission. Remove permissions from apps that do not need them.
Google Play Protect: Ensure this is enabled in the Play Store app. It scans installed apps for harmful behavior, though it is not a substitute for a dedicated security tool. See the Antivirus Guide for more on mobile security.
Browser Privacy Settings
Your web browser is the gateway to your online activity. It knows which sites you visit, what you search for, and often your physical location. Configure it for maximum privacy.
Universal Browser Settings
These settings apply across Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Brave, though exact menu locations vary.
Disable third-party cookies: Set your browser to block third-party cookies. This prevents advertisers and analytics services from tracking you across different websites. First-party cookies remain enabled for sites you visit directly.
Enable Do Not Track: Send a Do Not Track request with your browsing traffic. Note that this is a voluntary signal that many sites ignore, but it costs nothing to enable and some privacy-respecting sites honor it.
Disable autofill for payment information: Browser-stored credit card details are a security risk if your device is compromised. Use a dedicated password manager with built-in payment storage instead.
Clear cookies and cache on exit: Configure your browser to automatically clear cookies, cache, and site data when you close it. This prevents session tracking between browsing sessions while allowing convenience during active use.
Enable HTTPS-Only mode: Force all connections to use HTTPS encryption. Most modern browsers include this as a setting. It prevents downgrade attacks and ensures your traffic to websites is encrypted.
Chrome-Specific Settings
Navigate to chrome://settings/privacy. Enable Use secure DNS and choose Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Quad9 to encrypt your DNS queries. Disable Allow sign-in to Chrome to separate browser usage from your Google account. Navigate to chrome://settings/syncSetup and review what is being synced — consider disabling sync for everything or using a passphrase to encrypt synced data.
Firefox-Specific Settings
Firefox provides the strongest built-in privacy controls among major browsers. Navigate to Settings > Privacy & Security. Under Enhanced Tracking Protection, select Strict mode. This blocks social media trackers, cross-site tracking cookies, fingerprinting scripts, cryptominers, and known trackers across all sites.
Enable HTTPS-Only Mode in the same section. Under Firefox Data Collection and Use, disable all options. Consider installing the uBlock Origin extension for additional content filtering and tracker blocking.
Safari-Specific Settings
Safari integrates deeply with Apple’s privacy infrastructure. Navigate to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security. Enable Prevent cross-site tracking, Block all cookies (note this may break some sites), Fraudulent website warning, and Privacy-preserving ad measurement. Enable Hide IP address from trackers and set it to Trackers only for a balance of privacy and compatibility.
Privacy-Focused Browser Alternatives
If maximum privacy is your priority, consider switching from mainstream browsers entirely. Brave blocks ads and trackers by default, includes built-in Tor browsing, and provides fingerprinting protection. Mullvad Browser is designed specifically for privacy with Tor Browser’s anti-fingerprinting modifications without routing through the Tor network.
App Permissions
Reviewing app permissions is a recurring maintenance task. Set a reminder to audit yours every three months.
| Permission | Only Grant To | Why This Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Camera | Camera apps, video chat, document scanners | Apps with camera access can record video and take photos without you knowing |
| Microphone | Voice recording, call apps, voice assistants | Apps with microphone access can record audio anytime the app is in the foreground — or in background if exploited |
| Location | Maps, weather, ride-sharing | Apps with location access can track your movements over time, building a detailed history of places you visit |
| Contacts | Messaging, social media, email | Apps with contact access can upload your entire address book to company servers without each contact’s consent |
| Photos | Photo editing, social media uploads | Apps with photo library access can read and upload every photo and video you have stored |
| Bluetooth | Audio devices, health trackers, smart home | Bluetooth access can be used to track your location via beacon triangulation |
| SMS | Messaging apps (default SMS), verification | SMS access exposes all text messages, including two-factor authentication codes |
Uninstall any app that requests permissions it does not need. A flashlight app does not need access to your contacts or microphone. A calculator app does not need location access. There are no legitimate exceptions to this rule.
Social Media Privacy
Social media platforms are designed to encourage sharing, and their privacy settings are often buried in nested menus. Take the time to lock them down.
Navigate to Settings & Privacy > Privacy. Set Who can see your future posts to Friends. Review How people can find and contact you and restrict each option to Friends or Only Me. Navigate to Timeline and Tagging and enable review of tags before posts appear on your timeline.
Under Settings > Privacy > Your Facebook Information, review Off-Facebook Activity. Disconnect or clear any activity shared with Facebook from partner websites and apps. Turn off Do you want to allow search engines outside Facebook to link to your profile? to prevent search engines from indexing your profile page.
Navigate to Settings > Privacy. Toggle Private Account on. This restricts post and story visibility to approved followers. Under Activity Status, toggle off Show Activity Status to prevent others from seeing when you are online. Under Messages, restrict who can send you message requests.
Navigate to Settings & Privacy > Visibility. Set Profile visibility off LinkedIn to Off to prevent your profile from appearing in search engine results. Under Data privacy, disable Data sharing with third-party applications. Turn off Discoverability using email and phone to prevent others from finding you through contact uploads.
Minimizing Your Digital Footprint
Beyond device and app settings, reduce your digital footprint through these complementary practices.
Use a Password Manager
A password manager generates and stores unique, complex passwords for every account. When one service is breached, your other accounts remain safe because credentials are never reused. Modern password managers integrate with browsers and mobile devices for seamless autofill. For a detailed guide, see Password Manager Guide.
Use Email Aliases
Email aliases provide unique email addresses for each service you sign up for. If a company is breached or sells your data, the resulting spam and phishing attempts go to an alias you can disable without affecting your primary inbox. Services like SimpleLogin, Apple’s Hide My Email, and Firefox Relay offer alias generation integrated with browsers and mobile devices.
Opt Out of Data Brokers
Data brokers collect and sell personal information from public records, purchase histories, and online activity. Paid removal services like DeleteMe, PrivacyBee, and Incogni handle opt-out requests across dozens of brokers for a fee. For a free approach, manually opt out of the largest brokers — a process that takes about an hour and covers the most impactful sources.
Use Privacy-Focused Alternatives
Replace privacy-invasive services with alternatives that do not monetize your data:
- Search: DuckDuckGo instead of Google Search
- Maps: Organic Maps (based on OpenStreetMap) instead of Google Maps
- Browser: Firefox or Brave instead of Chrome
- Email: Proton Mail or Tutanota instead of Gmail
- Messaging: Signal instead of WhatsApp or Messenger
FAQ
Is it worth using a VPN for privacy? A VPN encrypts your internet traffic and hides your IP address from websites, which helps privacy. However, it does not make you anonymous — the VPN provider can still see your traffic. Use a VPN primarily for public Wi-Fi security and location spoofing. For everyday privacy, HTTPS encryption and browser privacy settings provide most of the benefit.
Will changing privacy settings break any apps or services? Some apps may lose functionality, particularly those that rely on location tracking, background refresh, or cross-app data sharing. This is expected — it is the trade-off for privacy. If an app breaks completely, consider whether it is worth using a service that requires invasive permissions to function.
How often should I review my privacy settings? Review your settings every three months. New apps are installed, existing apps update with new permissions, and operating system updates may reset or change privacy settings. Set a recurring calendar reminder to maintain your privacy posture.
Do privacy settings affect battery life? Disabling location services, background app refresh, and analytics reporting often improves battery life because the device has less background work to do. Most privacy settings have a neutral or positive effect on battery longevity.
What is the single most impactful privacy change I can make? Review and restrict app location permissions to only those apps that genuinely need them. Location data is the most sensitive category of personal information, and most apps have no legitimate reason to track your location.
For more on securing your home network, see the Home Network Security Guide. To protect against identity theft, read Identity Theft Protection.