You installed a new app on your phone. This is what you should check.

I recently wrote an article on periodically checking your app permissions that is related to this subject. While that article is about reviewing permissions “in bulk”, the article you are reading now is about specific best practices after a specific app is installed.

The issue

Once the app is installed and you signed into it, there are few things you should ask yourself:

• Do I want to grant this app all the permissions it asked for?
• Is the data in this app “sensitive”? Could there be reputation or financial issues if someone else could get into this app, or see app notifications?
• Should this app be allowed to run in the background, when I use other apps, or should it just be active when I use it?

Not thinking through those questions can lead to the app or app notifications inadvertently leaking information to anyone that picks up your phone. Only you can answer if this is a problem or not (it’ll be app specific).

Note: instructions in this post will be Apple iOS specific, but they apply to Android devices also. Please read and find related settings on your Android device!

Review app settings controlled by the app

As an example, let’s talk about Venmo. Venmo is one of the apps that you can use to send and receive electronic payments. But the principles here apply to ANY app. Of course, when signing into the app, you should use a unique password.

Find Account / Settings menu inside the app. Usually this is either a little cogwheel icon or maybe a hamburger menu (3 horizontal lines). Sometimes you need to click on the icon of your account (that represents you, the user) to see it.

Venmo specific settings I changed and why I changed them (this is an example only):

• Settings > Face ID and PIN. As this is an electronic payment app, I want to require Face ID when the app is opened. Enabled. Note here that unless you enable Face ID from the app, the Face ID setting does not show up in phone settings (as the app did not request to use Face ID). So, best to check settings inside the app first.
• Settings > Privacy. Set to Private. I do not need to be findable on Venmo social network. If I want to send / receive payments, I want it to be very deliberate.
• Settings > Notifications. I disable all SMS notifications and choose which in-app notifications I want. Any promotional and social notifications I am not interested in (disabled). I want an email notification if login attempts are detected, or purchases are made. Other email notifications are turned off.
• Settings > Friends & Social. Adding friends is disabled (I do not allow my phone contacts upload to Venmo).

Review app settings controlled by the phone

Once the app is launched (and you started using it), to find phone settings that are related to the app, you should go to your iPhone Settings > (name of the app). This section of settings is further down in Settings. Just scroll down until you get to your (app name). To continue with the example of the Venmo app, Settings > Venmo.

What you'll get then might look a bit overwhelming, but stay with me here:

Let’s go down the list:

• Location: I allow this “while using” only for Venmo. Venmo does not need to know my location when I do not use it. Any feature that Venmo has that might want my location Always, I am not interested in.
• Contacts: inside the Venmo app, I did not allow Social features (contact upload). So, this is disabled.
• Camera: this is enabled as a few times I needed to scan other people’s Venmo code to pay them.
• Face ID: enabled, as I want Face ID to be required for any app that allows money to be sent out.
• Notifications: (see below for more details)
• Background app refresh: I allow Venmo to run in the background. If I disabled this, and someone sent me a Venmo payment, I might not learn about the payment until I manually started the app.
• Cellular data: enabled. Whether I am on home Wi-Fi or my mobile carrier network, I want Venmo to be able to do stuff.
• Tap to pay on iPhone screen lock: enabled. If payment is required, I want Face ID to be required.

About the Notification settings… let’s say your phone is sitting on the table in the coffee shop and you are charging it. Your name gets called and you get up to get your latte while your friend stays sitting at the table. You then receive a Venmo payment at this exact moment and your phone lights up and buzzes. Your friend glances at it because the thing is buzzing.

Do you want the payment details to be displayed on the screen notification while your phone is locked?

I don’t want that.

So, tap into that Settings > Venmo > Notifications setting and scroll down to near the end. Then under Show previews choose When unlocked. Now you will get a notification, but the phone needs to be unlocked to see the notification details.

Different apps have different settings

It goes without saying, different apps have different settings, both inside the apps themselves and, as a result, in the phone settings. You might see slight variation of what you will see.

Summary

After installing any app on your phone, you should ensure that the app privacy and notifications settings are set appropriately for the app and your phone is not giving away more information than you’d want. Check the following:

• Account / Privacy / Notification settings inside of the app itself.
• App related settings that your phone controls.

Stay safe!