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The One iPhone Setting You Should NEVER Turn Off, According To Security Experts

August 1, 2021 by Lisa Cupido
shefinds | News
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By now you may be faithfully turning off Location Services and Wifi settings when you’re out and about and paying so much more attention to what you should switch off to protect your data and privacy. But there are a few good iPhone settings that tech experts say are best left on — at all times — to provide the best possible user experience. Curious to know which settings deserve to be forever enabled? Tech experts spoke with SHEFinds.com about the one iPhone setting (plus one more) you should never turn off. 

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iphone setting

iPhones MMS and SMS Messaging settings

 


Harriet Chan, co-founder of CocoFinder, counts iPhones MMS and SMS Messaging settings as important settings you should keep on at all times — just in case people trying to communicate with you are not on the same page as you are when it comes to devices. 

 


“The benefit of leaving the setting as you found it is to allow you to send or receive any message that isn’t an iMessage, such as messages and group text messages from people who don’t have iPhones,” Chan says. 

iphone setting

To easily enable MMS and SMS Messaging settings, go to Settings, scroll down to Messages and look for the Send as SMS setting, Chan says. “Check if the toggle is on and refrain from ever touching it if it is enabled. Also, avoid changing the MMS Messaging and Group Messaging settings.”

iphone setting

Cross-Site Tracking

 


Another setting that is best left on is cross-site tracking, according to Daniela Sawyer, Founder and Business Development Strategist of FindPeopleFast.net. “Through advertisements, pop-ups, notifications, advertisers can track you across multiple websites and third party hosts,” Sawyer says. “But the latest version of Safari for iOS 11 lets users prevent such activity by limiting the sites’ ability to monitor their browsing behavior. Therefore, this keeps the user data safe and secured and doesn't let advertisers use it for their purpose.”

iphone setting

To enable this feature, Sawyer advises following the steps below:

 


*Go to the Settings.

 


*Tap Safari, and turn on the Prevent Cross-Site Tracking option. 

 


While on the Safari menu option, users can also control advertisements or can permanently block the pop-up ads.

Author:

Lisa Fogarty is a lifestyle writer and reporter based in New York who covers health, wellness, relationships, sex, beauty, and parenting.

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