Privacy and Security

Remember Jim Clark? He was a founder of Silicon Graphics, Netscape, WebMD, and Shutterfly to name a few. His latest venture is named CommandScape and it is a suite of smart products and services for commercial buildings and larger homes. The product suite includes video surveillance, lighting, security, and more.

If you need to find and track a lost iPhone, using Find My iPhone is the easiest method. But does Find My iPhone work even when your iPhone is turned off or dead? Well, kind of. We’ll go over all the details and what to do if you need to find an iPhone without Find My iPhone. If you need to find a dead iPhone, you’ll still be able to find the phone’s last location. Here’s how to find your iPhone when it’s lost, whether it’s offline, dead, or even if you don’t have Find My iPhone.

There's a lot to like about the Deadbolt 02 ($199) from igloohome, especially once you get it installed. I particularly liked the "magical" way you can enter, just by holding your hand over the touchscreen, as long as you have your phone nearby. The sleek device uses Bluetooth 4.0 to recognize that you are close by, and then unlocks the deadbolt when your hand is placed in the right spot. This could be great for entering with groceries, etc.

Enabling Touch ID for use in apps means you can lock apps with your fingerprint on iPhone. Touch ID for apps allow you to lock apps on your iPad or iPhone in order to protect sensitive information such as private documents or personal finance information, instead of setting a password for app that you might forget. However, other apps such as Facebook don’t allow you to use Touch ID to lock the app. Whether or not an app uses Touch ID depends on the developer and how they intend you use the app. Once you have Touch ID enabled on your iPhone, you can use your fingerprint to open the Touch ID apps of your choosing. We’ll go over how to set up Touch ID apps below. We’ll also cover which popular apps are Touch ID apps and which ones offer fingerprint lock. And since setting up fingerprint lock on your iPhone often requires a passcode, we'll also cover how to put a password on apps. Here’s how to lock apps on iPhone. 

So you want to know how to hide photos on your iPhone, eh? Well the iPhone doesn’t really allow you to create a private photo album even though your photos are techincally hidden. Hiding picture on your iPhone within the Photos app has some big loopholes that makes it easy for someone to find the photos you mean to keep private. Which is why we’ll go over how to hide photos with the built-in 'private' photo album, yes, but also how to lock photos away on iPhone so that they are hidden behind a passcode. We consider this the way to really, truly hide photos on iPhone. But for even more security, you can also use an app to hide photos in a secret photo album on iPhone. Here’s how to hide photos on iPhone by creating a locked photo album.

If someone attempts to unlock an iPhone too many times unsuccessfully, an iPhone is Disabled, Connect to iTunes message will inevitably pop up. An iPhone will become disabled for security purposes—otherwise a hacker could sit there and try every possible combination until they got in. But just because your iPhone is disabled that doesn’t mean someone tried to unlock your device without permission. An iPhone or iPad may become disabled if a child plays around and gets locked out. It’s also perfectly possible to forget your own iPhone passcode, which may also cause you to enter too many digits and end up with a disabled iPhone asking to be connected to iTunes. Luckily, there are multiple solutions to this problem. Here’s how to fix a disabled iPhone by connect it to iTunes, iCloud, or using Recovery Mode.

When you delete cookies from your iPhone or iPad, you free up storage space and improve your device's performance speeds. When you clear the cache and cookies on your iPad or iPhone, you can also better protect your online privacy and potentially remove any malicious bugs your device may have picked up. And the good news is that to delete cookies from your iPhone takes only four simple steps in your Safari settings. Keep in minde that clearing cookies on your iPhone will delete saved logins and other website information.

A cool feature in the Photos app is the geolocation tool. With it, you can organize your photos by looking at them on a map. Let’s say you took a trip to Mexico. You can look at the map, which will show your photos in all the places you took them. Then you can look at Mexico, tap on your photos, and see all the pictures from your trip. Here’s how to view photos by location on a map with iPhone or iPad.

Sometimes, whether it's an ex or an obnoxious telemarketer, a person just won't get the message and stop calling you. That's when it's time to block their calls. There’s no need to put up with unwanted messages or calls. Enabling call blocking for a specific number means you will no longer receive phone calls, FaceTime calls, text messages, or iMessages from that number. Here’s how to block unwanted calls and messages.

If you’ve never had your Facebook hacked into, consider yourself one of the lucky few. Nearly everyone I know has had their Facebook account hacked into at some point or another. While you can never be sure no one will ever manage to get in, there are important steps you can take to make your profile secure again. If your Facebook has been hacked, here’s what to do.

We tend to think of our iPhone getting hacked as a far-off scenario, but large tech companies like Apple pay big money to white hat (good ‘witch’) hackers to find the bugs and loopholes they can’t see. Just recently, Apple decided to make iOS 10.3.2 available to even older iPhone users because of a flaw found that had gone unknown for a couple of years. While it’s not worth panicking over, it’s good to take precautions. iOS 10 has more security features directly on your iPhone than ever before. Can someone hack your iPhone? Sure; it’s even possible for someone to hack an iPhone remotely. But you can do a lot to secure your iPhone and protect it from possible hackers. The ten tips below will ensure you’ve implemented every safeguard possible; here’s how you can protect your iPhone from hackers, both local and remote.

I recently wrote an article on how to turn on Two-Factor Authentication on your iPhone for better security. Two-Factor Authentication requires the use of multiple devices. For example, if you get a new iPhone, when you log into your Apple ID account for the first time, you’ll need to use your Mac, iPad, or old iPhone to confirm that it’s you logging in and not some stranger trying to access your account on a random device. This is important since your Apple ID is used for everything including making purchases with your credit card. However, if you don’t feel the need to turn this feature on, or if you have it on and decide it’s unnecessary at some point, you can use this tip to turn Two-Factor Authentication.

Different than two-step authentication, two-factor authentication is the latest in Apple ID security from Apple. When two-factor authentication is turned on, even someone who knows your Apple ID password won’t be able to sneak into your account. This is because two-factor authentication requires a confirmation from a trusted Apple device when someone is attempting to sign into your Apple ID account. Here’s how to set up two-factor authentication on iPhone.

Looking for an easy-to-use home security solution that works wirelessly both indoors and outdoors? Netgear's Arlo Pro (starting at $249.99) meets those requirements and offers loads of other features that make it worth a closer look.

Most everything you do on your iPhone centers around your Apple ID. Your Apple ID account is what grants you access to iCloud, iMessage, and Facetime. It's also what allows you to make purchases from the App Store, iBooks Store, and iTunes Store. Since your Apple ID is so important for running your entire Apple ecosystem smoothly, we put an awesome collection together of Apple ID video tips that will make it easy for you to set up and manage your Apple ID account.

Our video tip collections are one of many incredibly helpful benefits of our iPhone Life Insider subscription. When you sign up, you’ll get instant access to this collection and many more features, which I’ll review below. With this post, you’ll get a sneak peak with one awesome video tip from the collection that will help you master your Apple ID account. Here’s our essential tips for setting up and managing your Apple ID account on iPhone or iPad.

Need iPad and iPhone help? Sign up for iPhone Life Insider and I’ll help you with all of your iPhone troubleshooting and iOS-related issues. Here’s a question from an Insider who wants to create a more secure password on their iPhone.

Your restrictions passcode on iPhone can be reset without restoring your iPhone. Well, not reset exactly. But this is a sure-fire way to find your restrictions passcode, which will allow you to take restrictions off your iPhone or reset the passcode. In essence, this is an article on how to recover your restrictions passcode on iPhone. At some point, we have all forgotten our restrictions passcode on iPhone, but Apple hasn't set up a fail safe for turning off restrictions when you don’t know the password. So we’ll use a simple workaround that will allow you to recover your restrictions passcode, so you can either turn Restrictions off on your iPhone or reset the passcode to something easier for you to remember. But if you happen to forget your restrictions passcode again, this article will be here for you. I’ve been so happy to see the comments from users this article has helped. It’s good to note that this article works for the old and new iOS (including iOS 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11). You can use this tip to take Restrictions off your iPad too. Here’s how to recover and reset your restrictions passcode when you don’t know the password on iPhone or iPad.  

When you allow Siri to be accessed from your Lock screen, you may want to consider what Siri is capable of doing without unlocking your device. For example, let’s say you’re in a room with multiple other people. If one of them were to activate Siri when you have Voice Dial turned on, they could tell Siri to call someone without needing your passcode. But if you have Voice Dial turned off, Siri won’t make the call until you enter your iPhone’s passcode. This may or may not be important to you, but it’s good to know what can and cannot be accessed from Lock screen. Here’s how to turn Voice Dial off on iPhone.

With Apple's release of its HealthKit API, the company has put the spotlight on its customers' health and wellbeing. Doing so has also encouraged manufacturers of third-party health-management devices to utilize the iPhone as a data hub, assisting users and even medical practitioners with monitoring and supporting healthy initiatives. One such device is the QardioArm Smart Blood Pressure Monitor $(99).

Last week, Apple released iOS 10.3.1. The update addressed a serious security Wi-Fi vulnerability discovered by Google Project Zero. Surprisingly, the update reinstated support for the iPhone 5 and 5C (the last 32 bit processor devices made by Apple) allowing those with the older iPhones to protect themselves from the security weakness. And now, Apple has also stopped signing iOS 10.2.1 and iOS 10.3, which means it's no longer possible to downgrade from iOS 10.3.1.