Boring Tutorials

beginner 20 min

Privacy defaults on Android and iPhone

Set tracking, ad, and assistant defaults on a phone you already own. Not a theft or IMEI guide.

Hero media key: tutorials/android-iphone-privacy-defaults/hero.webp (R2 public URL not set)

Prerequisites: You can unlock the phone

Goal

Tighten the obvious privacy toggles (tracking, ad personalization, assistant listening) on iOS or Android.

This is about defaults on a phone you control. It is not phone-theft recovery, not IMEI blacklists, and not a UK street-crime playbook.

  1. On iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security. Review Tracking, Location Services, and Analytics.
  2. On iPhone: turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track if you do not want that prompt spam — and revoke per-app tracking.
  3. On Android: Settings → Privacy / Security & privacy. Review permission manager, ads, and usage & diagnostics.
  4. Disable always-on assistant listening if you do not use voice wake.
  5. Open each map / social app and set location to While Using or Ask, not Always, unless you have a reason.

Steps

Stub. Paths move between OS versions; names above are the usual menus as of 2026.

Pitfalls

Done

  • Tracking / ads personalization matches what you actually want.
  • Assistant wake-word is off if you do not use it.
  • Location is not set to Always on apps that do not need it.

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