If you don’t turn off your smartphone at night, you need to pay attention. When you’re sleeping and your phone is on standby, it’s constantly sending and receiving data. Some of this data is necessary to keep your phone up to date and ensure you get the latest notifications as soon as you pick up the phone. However, some non-essential data is also transferred.
Which data transfers should you worry about?
Smartphones transfer data all day long. This includes data used for user tracking and advertising. Experts say that this personal data should not be transferred without the consent of the user. This data includes your location, device information, usage patterns, and other information. Even if you’re not using your phone at night, this data is constantly being shared. This leads to user profiling, which is used for targeted advertising. Last year, several big companies were accused of spying on Android users. There have also been cases where users saw ads for products they had talked about the previous day.
How to avoid this?
To avoid background data sharing, you should pay attention to the permissions given to your installed apps. Some apps ask for unnecessary permissions and then continue to transfer data. To avoid this, review which apps have permission to access your microphone, camera, and tracking data. Uninstall apps that are constantly active in the background if you’re not using them. Similarly, you can disable background app refresh on both Android and iPhones.
