Switching Off 1 Phone Setting Could Help Protect Your Safety

At this point, most of us have happily dumped our entire lives into the cloud  we have our pictures, credit information, and so much more floating around in the digital atmosphere and, for the most part, it makes our lives better. We can instantly access anything we need and thats great but that means other people, including those with nefarious intentions, can also potentially get ahold of our personal info.

Using smart, complex passwords to safeguard our accounts and choosing secure sites to do our banking and shopping is important, but what else do we need to be doing to keep our data from falling into the wrong hands?

Thats what we Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, hosts of HuffPosts Am I Doing It Wrong? podcast wanted to find out on our most recent episode, so we chatted with Alysa Hutnik , a privacy lawyer with Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP in Washington, D.C. And, boy, did we discover how much we need her help, as we arent doing nearly enough to protect our digital selves.

But we were also surprised to learn that making one small adjustment on our smartphones could keep us safer physically too.

By default, a lot of people leave their location tracking on or choose to always not just when youre using the app  but always choose to allow your location to be collected, Hutnik told us. And if you think about our patterns we come back to the same place at night most nights  to our home. We go to the same places for work. We have the familiar patterns. Your location is really personal.

Just think about how many apps have access to your location, and then ask yourself how many of them really need that information.

You have the choice to not share your location all the time or really be intentional about when you are sharing location, Hutnik said. You might need it because you want to find out how far the airport is from your hotel totally fine but if you dont need to share your location, dont.

So, if youre craving a croissant and youre in a city youve never visited before, it makes sense to give an app access to your location so it can guide you to the nearest bakery, but otherwise, its a good idea to turn off or say no to location sharing.

Hutnik also noted that its a good idea not to share photos of yourself or others in real time with the location tagged or even untagged. For instance, sharing a photo of yourself while youre on vacation can alert others that youre not at home, and this can act as an invitation for a robbery. Or, if youre traveling, especially if youre doing solo travel, and youre posting about the location youre visiting, others could easily find you at or near that spot.

By being more intentional about what you share, when you share it, and with whom, you can keep your personal info and your person safer online and offline.

During this episode of Am I Doing It Wrong? Hutnik also gave us super easy tips for beefing up (and diversifying) our passwords, told us why we might want to be a little more discerning about accepting cookies, how to make ourselves a little less vulnerable to scams and much more.

After youve had a listen to the full episode above or wherever you get your podcasts , subscribe to Am I Doing It Wrong? so you dont miss a single episode, including our investigations of the ins and outs of tipping , how to score the best deals on airline tickets , how to apologize  or vanquish your credit card debt , how to find love online  or overcome anxiety , online shopping , tips for taking care of your teeth , pooping like a pro , secrets to booking and staying in a hotel,  how to deal with an angry person , and more.

Need some help with something youve been doing wrong? Email us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.com , and we might investigate the topic in an upcoming episode.