Locking, Encryption And Other Ways To Protect Your Mobile Data

Our smartphones are the most portable devices we own and, quite often, the ones that also hold some of the most private data. And that’s the problem right there. We can never be sure that our phones will not fall into the wrong hands – or, even if the hands are not particularly wrong, it’s perfectly natural that we may want to keep some (or most) of our data private.

From the point of view of security, having your phone unprotected can have even bigger consequences. Sure, it’s embarrassing to have your phone stolen and wonder about thieves going through your recent vacation photos – but it’s even more unsettling to wonder about them knowing your home address and when you get back from work, the details of your bank account or that you leave your summer home key under the mat.

There are a few things you can do to keep your data safe and in this post we’ll go over a few of them: from the simplest to more elaborate.

The simplest way to keep your data safe is just locking your phone. By setting a simple combination for locking and unlocking your screen, you can make the process of getting to your data at least a bit more complicated. Locking your screen is super easy and on most Android devices all you will have to do is go to your Settings>Lock Screen and that will be the end of the story.

A more extensive and complex way of protecting your data is encrypting it. What this action will do is this: it will make your data unreadable until you put in a previously set up PIN code. Basically if your phone falls into the wrong hands, all the information on it will be indecipherable. This is a nice setup for anyone with sensitive information on their phones and would not mind going the extra step to protect it. Encrypting your data is not actually that complicated and you can read about the whole process in detail in our post on How To Encrypt Data On Your Android Phone.

A more systematic way of keeping your phone data secured is making sure you update your apps regularly, as the newer versions come with improved date protection features. This simple step can keep your passwords safe and also keep you shielded from malicious spyware.

Security software is also a nice addition to your smartphone, as it can protect your data in the background without you actually making any extra effort. So having one, or even a few of these apps on your phone can prove to be quite an efficient way to keep it safe. There are plenty of applications to choose from, that will be able to cover various aspects of your data security. Bluebox Security Scanner, for instance, allows you to detect security flaws on your device. Clueful Privacy Advisor will let you know if there are any third parties accessing your data. SurfEasy VPN will watch over your data privacy online. Well, you get the picture. You can also check out more applications in our post on Privacy Apps For Android To Keep Your Phone Calls And Texts Safe.

Protecting your mobile data is a task not to be taken lightly – but the effort and time you will want to put into it may depend on how sensitive your data is. If you have lots of confidential documentation, emails and messages making their way through your phone – you might go in for encryption. If your phone is mostly an entertainment device, just locking your phone and sporting a few mobile data security apps may be enough.