There’s a saying that goes around with an important lesson about our personal technology: the devil is in the default.
This term refers to the default settings that technology companies embed in the devices, applications and websites we use. These settings enable us to share data about our activity and location. We can usually opt out of this data collection, but the companies make the menus and buttons hard to understand, probably hoping we won’t fix them right away.
Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft generally require us to leave some default settings to train their algorithms and catch bugs, making it easier for us to use their products. But unnecessary data sharing isn’t always in our best interest.
So it’s important to take the time to compare the information we share with each technology product we use to see the many menus, buttons, and switches. Here’s a curated guide to many of the default settings that I and other tech writers exchange all the time.
Apple phones
On iPhones, users can change how information about their app usage and location is shared by opening the Settings app and entering the Privacy menu.
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Select Tracking and turn off Allow apps to request tracking. This tells all apps not to share data with third parties for marketing purposes.
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To prevent Apple from using information about you in its App Store, Apple News and Stock, choose Apple Ads and turn off personalized ads.
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Choose Analytics and Updates and share iPhone analytics to prevent iPhone from sending device data to Apple to improve its products.
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Select Location Services, tap System Services, and turn off iPhone Analytics and Routing and Traffic to prevent the device from sharing geodata with Apple to improve Apple Maps.
Google products
Google products such as Android phones and Google Search, YouTube and Google Maps are linked to Google accounts, and the control panel for adjusting data management is on the myactivity.google.com website.
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For all three categories — web and app activity, local history, and YouTube history — set Auto Delete to delete activity older than three months. This way, instead of creating a permanent record of every search, Google will purge entries older than 90 days. In the near future, it can still make recommendations based on recent searches.
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A bonus tip for Android phones comes from the editor of Ryan Hager’s tech blog “Android Police”: New versions of Android allow people to share their approximate location with apps, rather than their exact location. For many applications, such as weather software, sharing approximate data should be the way to go, and accurate geodata should only be shared with software that needs it to function properly, such as maps applications.
Meta Facebook
Meta’s most important settings can be found through the Privacy Checker tool in the Settings menu. These are some important adjustments to prevent counterfeiting by employers and marketers:
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For “Who can see what you can share”, select “Only me” for people who have access to your friends list and pages you follow, and “Friends” for who can see your birthday.
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For “How can people find you on Facebook” select “Only me” for people who can find you by email or phone number.
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Turn off the buttons for Relationship Status, Employer, Job Title, and Education for “Your Facebook Advertising Preferences.” That way, marketers can’t deliver targeted ads based on this information.
Amazon website and tools
Amazon gives it some control over its website and how it’s shared with products like Alexa and Nest cameras. There are two settings I highly recommend turning off:
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Last year, Amazon announced Amazon Sidewalk, a program that lets new Amazon products automatically share Internet connections with other nearby devices. Critics say sidewalks could open doors for bad actors to gain access to people’s data.
To disable the Echo speaker, open the Amazon Alexa app and tap More at the bottom right of the screen. In Settings, tap Account Settings, select Amazon Footpath, and toggle Footpath to Off.
For Ring Camera, in the Dialer app, tap the three-line icon at the top left, and then tap Control Center. Tap the Amazon Walkthrough and slide the switch to the Off position.
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Some purchase details on Amazon’s website — such as items placed on a wish list — are shared publicly by default, which can expose information. Visit your lists page and make each shopping list private.
Microsoft Windows
Windows PCs come with many data sharing settings by default to help Microsoft, advertisers, and websites learn more about us. To turn off those settings, the toggles are available by opening the Settings menu and clicking Privacy & Security, then General.
However, the worst default setting on Windows may have nothing to do with privacy. Whenever Wirecutter editor Kimber Streams tests out new laptops, one of his first steps is to open the sound menu and select No Sound to turn off the many annoying beeps that play every time Windows crashes.
