Privacy & Account Control
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What Google’s Timeline Actually Knows About Your Location (and How to Erase It)
The Timeline feature is disabled by default, so you cannot determine that Google has not recorded anything based on an empty Google Timeline page. Once enabled, Google Timeline will track your precise location throughout the course of a day, even when every application that is made by Google has been shut off. Google Timeline will take the information it collects…
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Instagram Says Your Account Is Deleted — Which State Is It Actually In, and What Now
When you stare at a login page and see the words “Account Deleted,” you have the impression that they all mean the same thing, but that’s not true. There are several different scenarios that those words can represent, and in most cases, there is an opportunity for recovery. Whatever scenario you find yourself in dictates what you should be doing:…
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WhatsApp’s End-to-End Encryption: What It Covers, What It Doesn’t
While WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption ensures that the text message you write is kept private from everyone except the sender and recipient, it does not keep the person’s life around that message private. Calls and personal chats are locked automatically, with no settings necessary, but the record of whom you have contacted and at what times will remain visible even after…
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You Deleted Your Google Account — Can You Get It Back? (What Google Actually Says)
You have the best chance of getting your Google Account back shortly after deletion, although Google doesn’t provide a firm time frame for recovering your account. It only states on its help pages that an account may still be recoverable until it has been set aside permanently. An automated recovery window exists to allow people to recover their accounts if…
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Turn Off Location on Your iPhone — and What the Switch Doesn’t Actually Stop
To turn off the location service, go to: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services, then flip the switch off (it should take about four seconds). The reason why you have to read an entire article instead of just getting an answer within four seconds is that the switch actually doesn’t work the way most people think it does.…
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