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Spring cleaning around the home is common. If you have a high-tech household, It’s also a great time to perform a spring cleaning on your devices, hard-drive(s), phones and tablets. While most of us manage to limit what we share with the world online, you may have exposed a lot more information than you realize.
Along with spring cleaning those devices, your privacy may need a ‘clean-up’ too. Have you ever wondered why you see online ads that are eerily similar to your recent online searches? One reason for that is that Google’s keeping track of you and tailors its ads to your interests. Sometimes your searches for certain topics may no longer be of interest to you. In that case, visit Google’s Ad Settings page https://adssettings.google.com
You may also want to:
- Turn off location history in Google
- Clear your search
- Manage your privacy
Google is pretty good about telling you what data it collects about you. It’s also pretty good about telling you how to manage your privacy.
Most of these functions, like the Privacy Checkup, start on Google’s Privacy Control page (click here to open it). Click on Take the Privacy Checkup >> select the features that you don’t want Google tracking.
A few suggested things to avoid sharing on Facebook: Credit card or financials, your full home address, when you’re away from home (on vacation), Excessive photos with geotags (i.e. your location added). When in doubt, think to yourself, would I share this information on a billboard for all to see? If not, or if you’re hesitant, don’t do it.
Tidy up your smartphone.
If you are an Android user and prefer to use an app, check out 1Tap Cleaner. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.acc.free
To clean your iOS gadget, there is no all-in-one app so it’s a more intensive process.
To clear your Web browser like Safari, click the Settings app. Then, select the browser from the drop-down menu and you’ll see buttons to delete the cache and history.
For other apps, click the Settings app and select General. From there, you can select the usage option. The top of the area will show you how much space is available on your gadget and how much you’ve used so far.
This area will contain a list of every app on you have and show you how much space each one is taking up. To clear out an app, just click it. If the app has a clear cache option, you’ll see it here.
You can also clear out your messages and call logs to save space.
To delete old texts, click the iMessage app. Then, click the Edit button in the upper left-hand corner.
Use the red circles to delete conversations. You can also go into conversations to delete specific messages. You can clear the call log in the same way by clicking the phone icon.
Clean up and Remove duplicate photos. Use a program like Duplicate photo fixer. Available for Android and iOS.
Complete a digital home inventory.
With the use of an app, this comes in super handy and you’ll be glad that you did so, if and when you ever need to compile a report for insurance companies.
Check out a list of our favorite inventory apps, A Handy List of 8 Home Inventory Apps.
Start from the outside of your house and work your way in by taking pictures of the outside of your house and the inside of every room. Once you have the basics established, simply take pictures of the valuables in your house like your oven, refrigerator, major appliances, antiques and, obviously, your tech gadgets.
We hope you found this post helpful, please share it with someone you love. What are your favorite tech cleaning shortcuts, if any? Do you loathe the idea of cleaning your tech? Talk to us on social media!
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