Android 17 Is Rolling Out With New Settings – What You Need To Check
Android And The New Settings
As mentioned in many posts recently, technology companies are adding new features with the settings turned on by default (opt-in), and it’s up to you, the user, to figure out where these settings are and turn them off (opt-out). The expectation is that a large portion of the user base doesn’t know any better, or won’t bother taking the time, so the technology companies will be able to get the data they want out of you.
In the case of Android 17, it includes updates to the system that can now access pretty much everything from your health data (if you use the health tracking apps), to your banking, to what you access while using your device, to where you go. All this is done in the name of “helping you organize”. What you need to realize is that once your information is out of your control, it is out of your control forever. You need to consider what information you are ok with sharing with strangers (tech companies) and what information you want to keep private.
Obviously, tech companies are also not going to make opt-out easy to find. For many of the Samsung settings that you need to review, they are buried deep in the settings section on the phone.
The Location Of The Settings
- Location Feed – There have been many stories about how companies like Walmart are tracking customers as soon as they walk into the store. Stores like Walmart are able to do this because of the location feed on your device. The 2 settings you need to look at are
- Settings -> Location -> App Permissions -> and look at each item listed. Either set to Ask Every Time (for things like Uber/Lyft/Waymo) or Don’t Allow (For things like shopping apps)
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- Location -> Location Services -> and the settings that say Wi-fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning; turn those off.
If you only turn off your normal Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings, you see on your device’s main settings page, you will still be able to be tracked at a location (like shopping at Walmart), because these 2 settings are working in the background. With these settings on, your phone will continue to “search and connect” to nearby networks.
- Google Account Logging Your Every Action – Your Google account has personalization settings. You open a browser or app and search for a new car, and then you notice all the ads you see are about car shopping. Ever wonder why? That’s because Google knows what you did on your device; that is the personalized ad. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need Google to personalize anything. For these settings, go to
- Settings -> accounts and backup -> manage accounts -> pick an account that ends in @gmail.com (if you have more than 1 listed, you will need to do this for each account that ends in @gmail.com) -> Google account -> data & privacy -> personalization settings.
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- In the window that opens, for every section you see, turn the setting off.
- Once that is done, hit the back arrow, and go back to this Data & Privacy window and scroll to the bottom. Click where it says My Ad Center
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- In the window that opens for My Ad Center, turn those settings off
Next thing to review: keep as much of the data on your phone instead of it being sent to a server that is not under your control. For this, go to
- Settings -> Galaxy AI -> scroll to the bottom of the screen and make sure “Process data only on device” is turned on.
Check The Permissions Manager – In this case, you want to know which apps have permission to your microphone, camera, and location. Ever have a conversation with someone, and then suddenly you see ads for something you didn’t search for, but you happen to be talking to someone about. That isn’t as wild an idea as it seems; your apps may be listening to you. To check this setting
- Settings -> security and privacy -> more privacy settings -> permissions manager.
- Here you want to click on call logs, camera, microphone, and location. Review each app listed, and if you know shouldn’t be listening to you, taking pictures, or knowing your location, disable it.
Final Thoughts
The reason you need to review these settings is that your information does not just go to the technology company or shopping app, or whatever app you use. Once that company gets any data from you, they will share it with “partners”, which are dozens or hundreds of companies that you probably never heard of. Most of the recent data breaches didn’t happen with the companies you directly deal with; they happened with the partner companies that the companies you deal with use.
