Invasion of Privacy on cell phone
 

There must be some retired IT people who visit this site and I have a request of them. My son visited recently and since he returned to his northern State his phone has been inundated with information of TV. Big brother must have latched onto him and would like to know whether there is anything he can do to make his phone private. Would appreciate any ideas you may have.

I am wondering whether there is a form of VPN for cell phones.

Inundated in what way? Has he been receiving phone calls and text messages? Has he been receiving emails? Has his social media accounts been filled with advertisements? The cause and solution is different for each of these so more information is needed.

Close out any and all apps on the phone.

No, there is pretty much nothing to completely stop it.

The problem is not the cell phone, the problem is he uses (used?) it to access the internet, and pretty close to everything you can access or do on the internet tracking your usage, and then sells that information to advertisers.

Apple iPhones and the latest iOS are taking steps to reduce the tracking, but even with some tracking suppression, it is not yet perfect and companies like Facebook are suing Apple just for providing the iPhone ower the option to opt-out of being tracked in SOME situations by Facebook. Facebook is saying in court "we have a right" to track our users and do anything we want with any information we get.

I would suggest getting an Apple iPhone and updating to the current OS. It will help, but it will not completely solve it. Just like there is no perfect solution to stop spam calls today.

It appears corporations have more rights than people.

Thanks for your immediate reply to my post.

He is receiving advertising from restaurants in TV. This made him wonder to what extent his phone is vulnerable. While he and his wife were here they would go out every day on the golf cart and would use the phone to find coffee shops etc. etc. So that could be behind a lot of the ads.

He owns a small business and is continually on his phone, the ads are becoming a real aggravation.

Yes, there are VPNs for phones. Express VPN is highly rated. However, VPNs bring some amount of complications to using the internet. Some sites get indigestion when you go to them. I used ExpressVPN and a couple of others for a while and had to give up.

However I am a very heavy internet user, and there were some cases I didn't want to have to deal with constantly. Light users may find the option okay. In general, I can't recommend them because of the potential complications.

High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service | ExpressVPN

I assume the ads come in the form of emails? If so there is a lot he can do to block spam emails.

Email services like iCloud and GMail have provisions for automatic spam/junk mail blocking, and most email clients/apps have the ability to flag email sources as spam and to block/delete them.

Even the best spam filters and blockers will still let some through, it is a constant curse. but it can be reduced to something that is workable.

I use iCloud and Apple Mail (windows and Andriod and GMail offer similar abilities) and they currently block about 200 to 300 spam/junk emails per day for me. And yet, about 2 or 3 still get through every day.

Bingo, that’s why I don’t use Facebook.

Since the issue is he is doing business using the phone, not using apps is not a solution. Email, Safari/Chrome, etc are apps and can be tracked.

Sounds to me like his settings need to be changed. If you set your cell phone to "check in" (location services), you're giving those locations permission to a) know that you're there and b) remind you to come back. If you don't want that to happen, you have to set your privacy settings to prevent it. I have -never- had an advertisement targeted for me from local businesses that I didn't intentionally sign up to receive.

I do get random spam from strangers, but that's because the person who had this phone number before I signed up for the cellular service was of dubious moral fiber (opportunities to "date" strangers, offers for loans, collection notices, etc etc). But they're all looking for Simone, and I'm not Simone. She's the one who had the phone number before it was assigned to me (yes, phone numbers get recycled).

In any case, it's nothing the stores and businesses are "doing" actively. They have their ads out and available, and those ads will automatically tag you if you've set your cell phone up to receive them. Turn off that feature, and you won't get the ads anymore.

I don’t think the suggestion is to not use his apps. But totally closing them out after use…not letting them run in the background…can help some.

He should remove any cookies from his browser, that may be a quick fix.
Like another reply said, if you use your electronics, someone's tracing you and trying to sell you something.

A VPN encryption does not block cookies or malware received from sites visited.

I agree, but it is not just Facebook.

Apple's latest Safari browser attempts to block tracking, and reports (icon on addressbar) to you how many and which trackers are on a website.

It has been very illuminating how many trackers are being blocked at sites I would never have thought about. It blocks literally hundreds of trackers every day.

So sad that companies have more rights than citizens.

True, VPNs are to hide or disguise your address, so trackers can't track you and sell your browsing habits to advertisers.