Know-how can appear fairly mysterious at occasions, so it’s all too straightforward for misconceptions to unfold.
That helps clarify why I hold seeing technological myths propagate. Do you have to bury a moist telephone in rice? Do you want a VPN to make use of public Wi-Fi networks? Is your telephone secretly recording your conversations? The reply to those questions and extra is not any, however believing in any other case could be detrimental.
Right here’s my try and dispel a half dozen in style tech myths, and what it’s best to do as an alternative of believing them.
This story first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech recommendation e-newsletter. Sign up for free to get extra ideas each Tuesday.
Fantasy 1: Dry rice can save a moist telephone
The concept that raw rice will draw the moisture from a waterlogged telephone is so pervasive that even Apple has tried to dispel it. “Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice,” the corporate’s help documentation says. “Doing so might permit small particles of rice to wreck your iPhone.”
What to do as an alternative: Your telephone could already be water-proof, rendering the rice trick out of date. But when not, iFixit recommends shaking unfastened any extra water, turning the telephone off, and leaving it out to dry for so long as attainable. (Placing your telephone in rice forces you to depart it alone, which can clarify why the parable persists.)
Fantasy 2: You need to repeatedly force-close all of your telephone apps
Because the creation of latest app menus in iOS and Android, I’ve seen too many individuals compulsively swiping as much as force-close all their apps, mistakenly believing this may preserve battery life or assist the telephone run quicker. In actual fact, force-quitting every thing can make performance and battery life worse, as a result of your apps will use extra energy every time they absolutely reload. Even Apple says to force-close an app only if it’s not responding, and the identical logic applies to Android phones as well.
What to do as an alternative: Use the Battery menu in your telephone’s settings to establish apps which can be draining your battery. It’s possible you’ll must adjust the background settings for that app or discover another.
Fantasy 3: Incognito mode prevents web sites from monitoring you
Misconceptions about Incognito mode are so widespread that Google needed to settle a class-action lawsuit last year after Chrome customers claimed that it supplied a false sense of privateness. So right here’s what your browser’s Incognito or Non-public Searching mode really does:
- Prevents websites from displaying up in your shopping historical past in order that others with entry to your laptop can’t see them.
- Helps you to browse websites in a logged-out state, with none of your interactions carried over from earlier visits.
These modes don’t render you invisible on-line, as web sites can nonetheless acquire knowledge and use identifiers corresponding to your IP handle to trace you. And should you signal into a web site whereas utilizing Incognito mode, that exercise shall be related together with your account.
What to do as an alternative: Use a web browser with strong built-in tracking protections, and probably a VPN should you’re extraordinarily involved about privateness (although VPNs aren’t panaceas either). An ad-blocking extension can assist, however provided that you’ve set it to run in Incognito mode.
Fantasy 5: Public USB charging ports unfold viruses
Due to repeated FBI warnings over time, the concept public USB charging ports can infect your gadgets with malware has turn out to be pervasive, but the precise risk of “juice jacking” stays theoretical. Thus far, no one’s provided a single real-world example of charging ports spreading viruses. Apart from, each Android and iOS require permission to switch knowledge when connecting your telephone to a different machine—one thing you’d hopefully reject when plugging right into a nefarious port.
What to do about it: Your individual adapters and cables could also be quicker anyway—particularly should you’ve followed my buying guide—however I wouldn’t fret about utilizing resort or espresso store charging ports in a pinch.
Fantasy 5: You want a VPN for public Wi-Fi
This one’s simply as pervasive because the juice-jacking delusion, however at the very least it used to be true. As of late, you’ll discover that just about each web site has an “https” in its handle, indicating that your site visitors is encrypted. That makes the encryption from a VPN redundant. Within the extraordinarily uncommon case the place a web site transmits unencrypted knowledge over Wi-Fi, your browser will use stern warnings to attempt to cease you from visiting it.
What to do as an alternative: According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the very best factor to do is ensure that your machine’s software program and working system are up-to-date, so that you’re not susceptible to safety vulnerabilities which may transmit unencrypted site visitors.
Fantasy 6: Your telephone is listening to you
You’ve most likely heard an anecdote like this: I lately met up with a buddy, and so they informed me about one thing they purchased that I’d by no means heard of earlier than. Then a few days later, I began seeing Instagram advertisements for that precise product! My telephone needs to be recording me.
It’s not, however the actuality is not any much less regarding: If an app in your telephone has entry to your location, and that knowledge will get shared with an organization like Fb or Google, it’s pretty trivial for these corporations to know which gadgets are close by and to focus on advertisements based mostly on what these gadgets have been doing. That’s lots simpler than secretly recording audio, particularly as a result of your telephone signifies when that’s occurring.
What to do about it: Should you discover this habits unsettling, take a couple of minutes to do the next:
- Disable your ad ID in iOS or Android.
- Handle which apps can entry your location on iOS or Android.
- Disable off-Fb exercise on this page underneath “Handle future exercise.”
- Flip off focused advertisements from Google on this page.
- Think about using a web browser with tracking protection or an advert blocker corresponding to uBlock Origin.
These steps gained’t remedy each potential privateness subject, however they’ll alleviate the sensation that your telephone is at all times listening.
This story first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech recommendation e-newsletter. Sign up for free to get extra ideas each Tuesday.
