Loading...So Google is the next iPhone spyware. Hard to believe? Shouldn’t be really when you look at how much personal and professional info you pour into Google all in a day’s work. They have the means and the virtual guts to pretty much follow you wherever you go. Quite literally, now that we look at the latest update involving Google and iPhones. iPhones were never all that ideally safe to begin with but now just the idea of using Google on your iOS device essentially means surrendering yourself up to be monitored, tracked, and located at all times without consent.
Or perhaps simply by using the Internet giant and the smartphone titan you’ve signed an unsaid mutual understood agreement that states you are enslaved to them. Most people think not. Surely the FTC doesn’t or they wouldn’t be fining Google a whopping $10 million minimum. Point is, so neither should you. Can you stop it? Realistically, perhaps not. Internet giants have accumulated too much power for an ordinary individual to prevent on all levels. However, you can refuse the shackles and claim back your iPhone and with it your internet browsing freedom by understanding a few key things.
What Google Did
In order to safeguard the integrity of your iPhone from wannabe monitoring software for cell phones like Google, it’s important to comprehend what actually happened. Google hacked the privacy settings of the Safari Web browser and placed cookies on them. The Safari Web Browser settings were such that by default, all cookies from advertisers were virtually barred. So this means that though the Safari security settings disabled cookies, Google bypassed that setting and installed the tracking cookies nonetheless. So the lesson you learn is not to be so dependent on any default settings, certainly not your iPhone’s. Take steps forward and customize your privacy settings in order to break away from the mould. Up the ante yourself and keep your browser on a leash by checking it out at intervals to see if the settings you last left it on are still in place.
What You Should Do
Well for the time being, switch browsers. Since Safari is the default web browser for iPad and iPhone, as well as all Apple PCs, it was much easier for Google to hit millions of iOS users with their version of the security settings. By distancing yourself or by being ‘far from the madding crowd’ of iOS web browsers, you’ll be able to avoid iPhone spy software and web tracking practices meant to target a large number of users simultaneously (such as the ones ad agencies and consumer data collection companies employ) via browser. Don’t take things as they are given to you. Being the user, you have a right to adjust and up settings to your own benefit. So instead of waiting for another Internet giant to come and mass exploit another default app, look for a more subtle option.
Be on Cookie Alert
One of the reasons that Google actually got away with the hack (for whatever time it did) was because the cookies it was placing on iPhone browsers were going unnoticed. So to really know what’s happening with your phone and how much cell phone spy software (in this case tracking cookies) is being leveled at it, get security software that has cookie management options such as ‘Cookie Viewer’. This way even if somewhere your browser or phone security has been compromised, cookie alerts will inform you of their presence. To remove them, simply use spyware removal or strong anti-viruses which will do the job. And understand that the threat is ever present and in any form. Freedom from online surveillance, tracking, and monitoring needs to be taken, not waited for.