How to Stop Apps From Leaking Your Data

howtogeek.com:

These days, smartphones can do it all. Unfortunately, they can also track it all. Smartphones have become a data mining gold mine, but you're not powerless—there are things you can do to make yours less accessible and valuable to those who seek profit from your activity.

Keep Tabs on Your Phone's Permissions

There are certain parts of your phone that apps have to request permission to access. An app cannot open the camera unless you first give it permission. It cannot access the microphone. It cannot search through your files.

Some of the apps that your phone came with may have permissions that you wish to revoke, or you may have granted undesirable permissions to apps you installed without paying much attention. You can change this by opening Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Permission Manager.

Check the Privacy Dashboard

Since Android 12, phones come with a feature known as the Privacy Dashboard. The Privacy Dashboard shows not only which apps have what permissions but also how often and how recently they've accessed them. You can click on an app that seems to be abusing its privileges and prevent it from having access in the future.

Go to Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Privacy Dashboard. Here is how to access the privacy dashboard on a Samsung device.

Stop Google Collecting App Data

When you first set up an Android device, if you say yes to every question Google asks during setup, you will supply the search giant with a lot of information about you. Fortunately, you can tell Google not to collect this information. In some cases, such as your web browsing and YouTube viewing history or your location data, you can even tell Google to delete it. You can also set up an auto-delete schedule so that Google can only save recently generated data.

You can audit these options by going to Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Activity Controls.

Revoke Permissions for Unused Apps

While it's helpful to check permissions every