Your Wifi settings may not be something that you think about often. You may assume your iPhone turns what it needs to turn on and off at the appropriate time to ensure your data remains private to the world. But that isn’t always the case — and it’s important to keep on top of those settings to ensure our phones are protected, especially when you’re out in the world and able to access public wifi networks. These are the wifi settings you should always have on, according to security experts.
Personal Hotspot
Chances are, there are going to be many times when you are out and need to or want to access the web. Your options will be limited and the easiest one — connecting to a free public wifi — takes just seconds to do, but isn’t the best choice when it comes to protecting yourself from hackers. This is why it’s so important to have a personal hotspot to rely on, says Tech Expert Mark Greene at Cloom Tech.
“This setting allows you to share your data connection with other devices and can be a great way to keep your privacy and security intact,” Greene says. “By sharing your data connection, you can make sure that your data is not being intercepted by third-party devices or apps. In addition, the Personal Hotspot setting can also help you avoid using public WiFi hotspots, which are often insecure and can put your data at risk.”
Protection of Mail Privacy Enabled
Email can be tracked using tracking pixels and HTML content that could load inline, making it a prime location for network activity compromise, according to Tech Expert Tiffany Payne, head of content at PharmacyOnline.co.uk. “Thankfully, iOS 15 provides Mail Privacy Protection as a solution to secure your communications,” Payne says. “This feature lets you load remote content into emails while concealing your location and IP address from the sender.”
To enable Mail Privacy Protection:
- Launch the Settings app.
- Select Mail | Privacy Protection from the menu.
- Turn on the Protect Mail Activity setting.
Clearing Browsing History
Don’t sleep on the importance of cleaning up your act after you’ve surfed the web a few dozen times. “Your device’s browsing history may contain a cache of the websites you’ve previously viewed, which can help them load more quickly the next time you visit them,” Payne says. “You can clear this data to improve security as well as to get rid of items that have been cached, which would free up more storage.” This cannot be programmed to occur automatically on iOS, however, but Payne advises manually clearing it by taking the following steps:
- Launch the Settings app.
- Go to Safari by clicking.
- Tap Clear History And Website Data.
- Confirm by selecting Clear History And Data.
