Your Phone May Be Sharing More Information Than You Think — Check These 3 Settings

A phone’s privacy settings let users review location access, advertising tracking and sensitive app permissions. Restricting unnecessary access can reduce data sharing without sacrificing useful features – Shutterstock

Your phone can help a pizza place find your driveway, remember your favorite shopping app and suggest a vacation destination. Convenient? Absolutely. But some of those conveniences come with data-sharing choices worth revisiting.

Three settings deserve a closer look: location permissions, advertising tracking and app access to sensitive information. They control different things, and changing them can reduce certain kinds of data exposure without turning your phone into an electronic paperweight. You do not need to delete every app or spend Saturday reading privacy policies written for people with law degrees. A few minutes in your settings can help you make more informed choices about what your phone shares.