The Default Settings That Don’t Default to Your Privacy
Smartphones leave the factory configured for the manufacturer’s ecosystem benefit and the advertiser’s data collection benefit rather than for the user’s privacy. Default settings share location with apps that don’t need it, allow advertising identifiers that enable cross-app tracking, permit apps to access contacts and microphone in ways that aren’t necessary for their core functions, and enable data sharing features that most users aren’t aware of. Changing these defaults takes less than 20 minutes and produces meaningful reduction in data collection without removing functionality that most users actually use.
Both iOS and Android have improved their privacy tooling significantly over the past few years — App Tracking Transparency on iOS, Privacy Dashboard on Android — but these tools require user awareness and active configuration to provide their intended benefit. The settings that follow are the changes that produce the most privacy improvement per minute of configuration time.
iOS: The Settings That Matter Most
App Tracking Transparency (Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking): ensure ‘Allow Apps to Request to Track’ is either off entirely or that you review which apps you’ve permitted to track. ATT limits apps’ ability to access the IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) and track across other apps and websites. The majority of users who see the ATT prompt tap ‘Ask App Not to Track’; the settings review ensures older permissions don’t persist for apps that requested before you understood what they were asking.
Location Services (Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services): review every app with location access and change any ‘Always’ permission to ‘While Using App’ unless the always-on access is specifically needed (navigation apps during a commute, for example). Apps with ‘Always’ location access run location services continuously in the background; ‘While Using’ limits access to active use sessions. Additionally, disable Precise Location for apps where approximate location is adequate — a weather app needs approximate location; only navigation needs precise.
iOS: Additional Privacy Improvements
Personalised Ads (Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising): disable ‘Personalised Ads’ to prevent Apple from using your information to target ads in the App Store and Apple News. This doesn’t reduce the number of ads you see but uses less of your data for ad targeting. Analytics & Improvements (Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements): review and disable any sharing you’re not comfortable with — iPhone Analytics, iCloud Analytics, and the options for sharing data with Apple for improvement purposes each have toggles worth reviewing.
Siri and Search (Settings > Siri & Search): review which apps have Siri integration enabled, and disable ‘Listen for Hey Siri’ if you don’t use voice-activated Siri (this keeps the microphone from continuous monitoring for the wake word). Show App Suggestions controls whether Siri learns your app use patterns — useful convenience but based on tracked usage behaviour.
Android: The Settings That Matter Most
Privacy Dashboard (Settings > Privacy > Privacy Dashboard on Android 12+): provides an overview of which apps have accessed sensitive permissions (location, camera, microphone) in the past 24 hours. Review any accesses that seem unexpected and revoke permissions for apps whose access looks unnecessary. This dashboard is the fastest way to identify apps that are accessing sensitive hardware when you wouldn’t expect it.
Ads (Settings > Privacy > Ads on stock Android, or Settings > Google > Ads on many devices): ‘Delete Advertising ID’ removes the persistent advertising identifier that allows cross-app tracking on Android. This is the Android equivalent of ATT’s effect — once the ID is deleted, apps can no longer use it to build a tracking profile across multiple apps. On Samsung devices, the equivalent is in Settings > Privacy > Advertising ID. This is one of the highest-impact single privacy setting changes on Android.
Android: Permission and Sensor Controls
Permission Manager (Settings > Privacy > Permission Manager): review permissions by type — Location, Camera, Microphone, Contacts, Calendar — and see which apps have each permission. Change any ‘All the time’ location permissions to ‘Only while using the app’ unless continuous background access is genuinely necessary. Remove permissions from apps that shouldn’t have them (the flashlight app with microphone permission, the game with contacts access).
Sensors Off (available in Android Developer Options, accessible in Quick Settings as ‘Sensors Off’ on some Android versions): a developer option that disables access to camera, microphone, and other sensors simultaneously — useful in situations where you want to ensure no app is accessing these sensors. More practically, the per-sensor permissions in Permission Manager provide fine-grained control without a blanket sensor disable. The combination of cleaned-up permissions and the Advertising ID removal addresses the two most impactful mobile tracking vectors for most users.