Top 4 Tips for Cell Phone Safety

This post was originally written for Military OneSource, a website that provides resources and support for military personnel and their families. The original post can be found here.

According to one study, 89% of service members own a smart phone, and over half report regular social media activity. Our cell phones contain a lot of information about us, so keeping it secure and private from prying eyes is important. Privacy on a smartphone is especially relevant for anyone who may have a spouse or partner who is misusing technology to harass or control them. Here are 4 tips that technology safety experts recommend to keep your device safe and secure.

1.     Lock Down Your Phone

One of the most important things that everyone should do is to put a passcode on their phone. This prevents someone from going through it or installing unwanted apps or malicious software, such as spyware. Most phones allow users to lock their phone with a 4-6-digit code. Pick a code that someone close to you cannot guess and only you know.

Some phones have other passcode lock options, such as a pattern, thumbprint, or facial recognition. Be cautious about allowing others to put into your phone their own thumbprint or facial image. If someone else needed to get into your phone (and you trust them), you can always tell them your 4-6-digit code, and then change it afterwards.

2.     Review Your iCloud & Google Accounts

If you have a smartphone, you likely also have an iCloud (for iPhones) or a Google (for Android) account associated with your phone. These accounts often contain your phone’s back up, and depending on your settings, can also include sensitive information, such as photos, notes, contacts, calendars, and other personal information on your phone.

Unfortunately, these accounts can be accessed not just via the phone but from another phone or computer. This means that anyone who knows the username and password to your iCloud or Google account can log in and see some of the information that’s on your phone. Here are some tips on protecting all that personal data:

• Make sure that only you know the username and password.

• Ensure that the email address associated with the account is secure and no one else can access it.

• Check to see if other devices are connected to your iCloud or Google account and remove those devices if you don’t want it connected.

• Know what information (photos, contacts, notes, etc.) is backed up to your account. (You can choose what information to back up in the phone’s settings.)

3.     Know the Apps on Your Phone

Millions of apps are downloaded each day. Some of these apps use information from your phone to function (for example, Google Maps needs to know your location to provide directions), while other apps may share information on your phone in more malicious and even dangerous ways.

Here are some steps to increase the privacy and security of your phone.

• Review the privacy settings on your phone to know what information is being accessed by which apps.

• Delete apps that you’re not using, especially if they have a lot of permissions to access your data.

• Deny access request for apps that do not need it. For example, a gaming app that doesn’t involve location doesn’t need your location and shouldn’t require it. 

• Be cautious and avoid malware and other malicious apps by doing the following:

  • When your phone prompts you for a software update, say yes. These often include security updates to your phone’s operating system.

  • Don’t download apps outside of the official app stores. On Android phones, you can prevent this from accidentally happening by turning off “allow unknown sources” in the security settings. If you have an iPhone, don’t jailbreak the phone so that you can download apps not in the App Store.

  • If you download apps from the Google Play store, turn on Google Play Protect to scan for malicious software before they’re downloaded. 

  • Download anti-spyware and anti-malware tools. 

4.     Choose When to Connect to Wi-Fi & Bluetooth

While most smartphones now ask you to confirm if you want to connect with a Wi-Fi network or a Bluetooth-enabled device the first time, in most cases, if you’ve connected once, it’ll automatically connect again when you’re within range. Unless it’s a secure Wi-Fi network or it’s a Bluetooth device you trust (for example, you own the other Bluetooth device), consider “forgetting” the network or Bluetooth device after you’re done connecting. You can find this option under settings. Choose when to connect your smartphone, but more importantly, choose when NOT to connect.

Help and Resources

If you are concerned about your cell phone privacy and suspect your spouse or partner may have accessed or tampered with your device, help is available. Whether you are looking for help in talking to your partner about “hitting reset” on the use of technology in your relationship to establish healthy boundaries—or want to report domestic abuse or intimate partner violence facilitated through technology—the military community has your back.

You can:

• Contact your local Family Advocacy Program (Department of Defense program), and an advocate can work with you to develop healthy boundaries in your relationship, create a technology safety plan or help you document abuse involving your smartphone and other devices.

• Understand military reporting options. Know how to report domestic abuse in the military and what happens when you do. To learn more about military reporting options, including how to manage your safety, contact a Family Advocacy Program victim advocate.

• Get help from the civilian community. If you are concerned about your safety and need immediate support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.

• Learn more about technology privacy and security. Information for this article was provided by the Safety Net Project of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. To learn more about cell phone safety and location strategies, see this guide.

New Resource - Judicial Toolkit: Resources on Technology Abuse

We are pleased to announce a brand-new toolkit on technology abuse for judges and judicial officers. As technology becomes more pervasive and is misused to stalk, harass, and abuse, it is more important than ever that judges and judicial officers understand how technology is misused in the context of these cases. Within this toolkit are guides, quizzes, and resources, written specifically for judges and judicial officers on navigating digital evidence and understanding technology misuse in the context of domestic violence.

This toolkit also contains resources on how judges can use technology to enhance efficiency in and improve access to the courts, increase accessibility for self-represented litigants, and examine the changing legal landscape as it relates to the rise of cyberviolence cases.

You can access the Judicial toolkit here.

Don’t forget to check out our other toolkit, specifically the Legal Systems toolkit, written for criminal justice professionals, and the Technology Safety and Privacy toolkit for survivors.

© 2019 National Network to End Domestic Violence, Safety Net Project. This toolkit is funded through a grant from the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this web site and toolkit (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).

Need to Call 911? There’s an App For That!

In the past year, the app market has been flooded with a plethora of 911 alternative or enhancement apps. Some of the apps promise that they will connect you to 911 faster and more accurately. Other apps say they will connect you to 911 and provide emergency dispatchers with personal information about you, so you don’t have to. One app promises to collect evidence by recording the crime being perpetrated against you and connecting you to a “safety officer.” (Note: As far as we could tell from the app or its website, the safety officer has no connections to a legitimate law enforcement agency.)

Many of these app developers are asking domestic violence and sexual violence programs to partner with them and are encouraging programs to have survivors download the app.  While we’ll have reviews of some of these apps available soon in our App Safety Center, here are some things to think about when considering whether these apps are right for you.

What These Apps Are Trying To Fix

Currently, the emergency 911 system in the United States is complex. How your call gets routed to 911 depends on whether you’re calling from a landline or a cellphone. Generally, a landline number is connected to the house that number is registered, making it fairly easy for emergency responders to locate you. Calls from cellphones don’t have a set location. Instead, the 911 system uses the cell towers your phone is connecting from to identify your location. Your location can be fairly accurate or not very accurate at all, depending on how far you are from cell towers or how well your phone is communicating with the towers. This is especially problematic for callers from rural areas.

Another problem with the current 911 system is that if someone can’t speak, she or he can't explain what is happening when calling 911, a system that generally requires the caller to explain to the emergency dispatcher what is going on. Some of the apps try to overcome these limitations.

Some Serious Concerns

Despite how helpful these apps might seem, there are some serious issues to consider before you decide if it is the right app for you.

How Connected Are They to the Real 911 System?

These apps are not part of the traditional 911 system. They are a third party that promises to connect you to 911. When you use the app, it connects to you a call center, where an operator asks you questions or interacts with you via the app. After that, it routes you to the nearest 911 dispatch center where you (or the app call center) speak to an actual emergency dispatcher, who then has the authority to send emergency responders. If you were unable to speak or communicate or if you hung up, the app service may call you back and, depending on their policy, may inform your local 911 emergency dispatch center that you called. However that is not very different from how 911 currently works.

When in an emergency, there should be as few delays as possible between your call and the emergency responder. It is really important to consider all your options in contacting 911 so that you get the quickest and most efficient response.

Do They Really Work?

These apps are very new. They have not been tested to see how many times they are successful in connecting callers to emergency dispatch centers compared to their rates of failure. If you live in an area where, after calling 911, emergency responders were unable to locate you or unable to communicate with you, then these apps might be an option. However, if calling 911 currently works just fine for you, then consider if you need another app that does what you can currently do by dialing 911 from your phone.

If you do choose to use one of these apps, test it. Make sure that it works the way you want it to. Don’t wait until you’re in an emergency to realize that it doesn’t work. In our tests of some of these apps, we found that when we used the texting option, although we received messages from the app saying “help is on the way” and that 911 would be contacting us soon, no calls or assistance came. We suspected that this might be the case, since most 911 call centers are not equipped to respond to text messages so we knew that this was unlikely to work.

But Don’t These Apps Have More Features than the Current 911 System?

Some of these apps have additional features that you may find useful and helpful to you. If you test it, and it works the way it should, and you want an app that offers these features, then go ahead and use it. However, there are a few things to consider about some of these features.

A lot of these apps promise to determine your location better and more accurately than the current 911 system. While this may be true in some circumstances, it may not be true a hundred percent of the time. Your cellphone location is accessible in a variety of ways. If your phone is dead or you are in an area with very poor or no signal, there is no guarantee that these apps will do a better job at locating you.

One of the selling points for some of the apps is that if you share personal information about yourself (physical identifiers, medical conditions, family members, number of pets, etc.), they will provide that information to emergency dispatchers, making it easier for emergency responders to know what to do. Keep in mind, however, that emergency dispatchers and emergency responders are trained to respond to emergencies with as little or as much information as they are given. It really depends on the emergency you are in whether this additional information would be truly helpful. Also keep in mind of what this third party does with the personal information you share. Read their privacy policy and know how else they share or sell your personal information. They should also have robust security to protect your data and inform you if they have a data breach.

A final concern is how “evidence” from these apps (which can be in the form of recorded audio or video) will hold up in court. Generally, 911 calls are used as evidence in criminal cases, but if you are using an app where your first emergency contact was with a third-party company, how that interaction will submitted in court is unknown. Talk to local authorities about how this type of evidence could be used. Ask the app service how accessible the “evidence” will be. Some companies may release the evidence only with consent from you, and some companies may release it to anyone with a proper legal order, which might include the abusive person and his or her attorney.

Should I Download a 911 Alternative or Enhancement App?

Many of these apps are being marketed specifically to domestic violence and sexual assault victims because they know that survivors’ ability to connect with 911 is critical. If you want the ability to make a silent call to 911, or want a service that will communicate to someone your location, name, and any other personal information you choose to share, one of these apps may give you peace of mind. However, don’t trust your safety to an app without learning all that you can about it and testing it.

Additional points to keep in mind:

• It might be faster to call 911 from your phone. Most smartphones have an emergency feature that allows you to call 911 with a swipe and a tap, even if your phone is locked. If the app requires you to unlock your phone, find the app, open it, and then do whatever is needed to send the emergency call (tapping a button 3 times, or push a button and then confirm or cancel the call 3-5 seconds later), it might be faster to just dial 9-1-1 during a serious emergency.

• These apps will not prevent crimes from happening. Any app that claims or implies that is lying. (One app, for example, claims that using their app is “like having an officer in your back pocket.”)

• Assess whether you have a situation in which using these apps will enhance your experience when calling 911. For example, you may live in an area where emergency responder has had a difficult time locating where you are, but after testing one of these apps, it does a better job.

• If the app contacts other people (in addition to emergency dispatch centers) and shares with them that you are in an emergency, talk to the people you chose for the app service to contact and let them know that they may be contacted and what they should do.

• Have a backup plan and trust your instincts. Don’t rely entirely on these apps. If you are in an emergency and something doesn’t feel right, trust your instinct and do what is right for you.