It has become a challenge to protect and maintain your privacy in today’s world. As we are getting more connected, it has also become easier for apps to leak private information, like our identity, password, or location. The newest discovery is that an Android phone with its screen turned off and connected to a Wi-Fi network can leak the user’s location history to anyone who’s interested in a peek.
This “location history” is basically the names of all those wireless networks that your device has previously connected to. It may not seem to be the biggest issue on the surface, but is potentially more dangerous than earlier encrypted data leaks because your phone is basically broadcasting where you’ve been (using what Wi-Fi networks you connected to) in simple terms. What’s worse is that it’s pretty easy to pinpoint users’ exact location on the globe through some easy techniques.
The interesting bit: This was never intentional. We don’t really believe that Google ever meant for this to happen in Android, as this technique uses Android’s ability to connect to known networks faster.
While Google should be fixing this issue soon, here’s what you can do at present to prevent others from using this method to find out your Wi-Fi history:
1. On your Android phone, open up the Settings app.
2. Scroll down to “Wi-Fi” settings.
3. Navigate to Advanced Wi-Fi Settings and change the behavior for “Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep” to “Never.”
Doing so could potentially slow down your device, as your device will be off during sleep and won’t update any apps, but this method could save your Wi-Fi location history from falling into the wrong hands.
Let us know what you think of this latest discovery in the comments below, and tell us if this fix worked for you or not.
Shujaa Imran is MakeTechEasier’s resident Mac tutorial writer. He’s currently training to follow his other passion become a commercial pilot. You can check his content out on Youtube
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