While there’s not much you can do about data breaches that happen from the services you use, since it’s up to each company to fix these security holes, there are steps you can take to protect your phone from sharing private information with apps.

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Here are 4 ways you can protect yourself from getting hacked, targeted for ads, and exposing your personal data for companies to collect.

Be Vigilant With Your Apps
One of the best ways to protect your data is to audit your apps, which can help you learn which apps are connected to your social media sites. Checking your privacy settings for Facebook, Google, and Twitter can help you see which apps are linked to those accounts.

On Facebook, go to the top-right corner, hit the down arrow, click Settings and check the Apps tab. Here you can choose which apps retain access of your personal information. In Google, go to Settings and hit “Connected apps & sites,” and on Twitter, you go to “Settings and privacy” and hit the Apps page. At that point, you can minimize which apps are linked to each social account.

Delete Old Apps
If there are some old games and apps you’re no longer using that are still hanging around, make sure to delete them. By getting rid of them, these apps will not be able to collect any additional personal information about you, along with all the data stored within them.

Change Your Password Every 6 Months
Another good rule of thumb is to change your password every 6 months to keep passwords fresh and prevent hacking attacks targeted at you. If someone manages to get their hands on your hashed password, they’ll be able to use decryption methods to attain the full password. You could change your passwords more often than every 6 months, but make that the minimum amount of time to update your passwords.

Read Privacy Policies
Some apps may have lengthy privacy policies, but these are worth reading because they give you a solid idea how much data each app shares or guards. If you need to connect your personal data to the app, make sure the app comes from a reliable source and you know exactly how much information it’s gathering.

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While it’s ideal that to keep an eye out for these attacks, it also helps to have someone watching your back. dfndr security offers an Anti-Hacking feature that any Android user can quickly take advantage of. The anti-hacking technology scans and blocks potential malicious links that may appear on your smartphone. This ability means you can enjoy Snapchatting with a bit less worry.

However, there are additional steps you can take to ensure that not only your Snapchat account is secure but also your other social media accounts remain safe online.

Keep an Eyebrow Raised For Phishing
While there isn’t a desire to instill paranoia, there’s a need to acknowledge that hackers and scammers are continually using phishing techniques to steal information. In the recent Snapchat attack, users received messages from other compromised users that asked them to look at a link. Once the link was clicked on, a fake Snapchat login screen opened and prompted users to enter their login information. This scam allowed hackers to walk away with thousands of usernames and passwords.

Always be cautious when clicking any links. If you aren’t sure where they are headed – it might be best to stay away. If you do click through to a website that asks for your login information, check the address bar by tapping on it with your finger. You can then examine it to ensure the site is authentic and not a phishing scam.

Never Go Without Two Layers of Defense
Most social networks, including Snapchat, now offer the ability to enable two-factor authentication on your account; this means even if a malicious individual steals your password, they would be prompted to enter a unique one-time code to log in. This one-time code is typically texted to your smartphone, so they would never receive it. Enabling two-factor adds another layer of security to your online life and verifies that you’re identity when logging in to an account.

Take Back Your Account
Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, we find ourselves victimized by hackers. You may notice your social account has been compromised if your friends receive weird spam-like messages from you or you get alerts that someone is attempting to sign in from a different location. With Snapchat specifically, only one device can be logged in at a time, so you’re always being prompted to login when using the app, it may be a sign that someone else has been there.

Snapchat advises all users to take the first step of changing your password as soon as you believe your account has been compromised. Also, verify that your email address and mobile number on file are up to date. Lastly, remember to turn on that two-factor authentication, doing that small gesture will keep you snapping in safety for a long while.

One of Snapchat’s most advanced — and exciting — features are filters. Many of those boast facial recognition, where it turns its user into a different character whenever it’s used. But how does that technology work, and what does Snapchat know about you that you may not have realized? Find out below.

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Snapchat’s Facial Recognition
The Snapchat filters that we all adore come from a Ukrainian startup called Looksery, which was acquired for an impressive $150 million by Snapchat. While the company tries to keep it under wraps exactly how their technology works, there’s been research done on the topic.

To put it in layman’s terms, the app uses computer vision to spot you based on contrast patterns that can commonly be found in the human face. It uses a general “map” or “graph” to find people’s faces and overlay the features of these filters. To make this work, Snapchat trained their system with hundreds or even thousands of different faces, manually marking them where features lay: nose, mouth, eyes, and overall face. That means that when each of us uses the filters on our own faces, the program can use up to 24 frames per second to use its “point-mask” to shift to match your specific face.

How Much Does Snapchat Know?
This cool (but slightly creepy) process does pose a question: How much does Snapchat know about us? Should we be taking measures while using the app to protect our identity? While the tool does seem to have a lot of information on us — our contact list, our name, our location, and even our current activities — it doesn’t seem that the application can detect too much about us via the facial recognition apps. It may learn more about our facial features and the structure of our face, but it’s not presenting anything too crazy at the moment. This means that we can snap away using these fun and quirky filters without fear.

Memories

Before getting into the details of Memory storage, Snapchat users should have a sufficient knowledge of how the feature works. By default, Memories will not save Snapchats or Snap Stories unless users manually select the downward facing arrow. To change this, users can access the Memories section of settings and select the “Auto-Save Stories” option under “Save To” and all future Snapchat Stories will be saved. To access Memories and view saved Snapchats, simply swipe up on the main camera screen on the app and all saved photos will appear. Within Memories, users have access to their saved snaps, their phone’s camera roll, and a passcode-protected “My Eyes Only” section.

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Storage

When Snapchats and Snap Stories are saved in Memories, they are automatically backed up on the cloud for users. This factor means that users can access their snapchat stories from any device that they choose to log into and that a lost or stolen phone doesn’t mean photos and videos are gone forever. Each user has access to unlimited cloud storage through Snap’s contract with the Google App Engine cloud.

However, while photo storage occurs in the cloud, your Memories cache can grow swiftly and take up a significant portion of your phone’s storage. This cache is a container for Snaps and Snapchat Stories you’ve recently taken and other account data that allows your memories to load quickly. Clearing this cache will free up space without actually deleting Memories, only clearing locally stored Memories content. To do this, tap the ghost icon at the top of the main screen and then the settings icon. Then, scroll down the settings window to tap “Clear Cache,” then “Clear Memories Cache,” and confirm.

What Happened?

A gun safety nonprofit, Everytown for Gun Safety, was running an anti-gun violence awareness campaign featuring videos of families who’d lost relatives to guns on Snapchat. In the middle of the campaign, Snapchat sent the nonprofit — backed by former New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg — a message that they would start running the NRA (a pro-gun lobbying organization) on its campaign if the nonprofit didn’t pay Snapchat for advertising. The NRA, of course, opposes the kind of gun reform that Everytown supports.

Who Was Involved?

Everytown for Gun Safety contacted Snapchat about advertising on National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Snapchat’s head of political sales, Rob Saliterman, said that the charity would have to pay $150,000 to Snapchat if they wanted users to be able to use custom filters and lenses to participate in the event.

At the same time (and without connection to the political sales team), Snapchat’s news team spoke to Everytown about partnering up for the Awareness Day. Because Everytown’s anti-violence campaign featured celebrities like Sarah Silverman and Kim Kardashian, Snapchat offered to display the campaign on Snapchat for free, in a Live Story.

The nonprofit, then, thought they didn’t need to pay the $150,000 originally requested by the political sales arm of Snapchat. However, Saliterman, the head of that department wrote:

“I just learned our News Team is doing a Live Story on National Gun Violence Awareness Day.” He then said: “I would urgently like to speak with you about advertising opportunities within the story, as there will be three ad slots. We are also talking to the NRA about running ads within the story.”

Snapchat’s Musical Partnership
However, even within the past few months, Snapchat’s involvement in the music industry has strengthened. In December, the company announced their integration with one of the world’s most popular apps, Shazam. This allowed users to open the camera and film their surroundings while identifying the song that’s playing in the background. Snapchat users were able to discover new music and share it with friends easily, while promoting new artists and records at the same time.

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Snapchat Previews New Songs
Snapchat has taken the relationship with the music industry one step further by creating Snap filters which feature exclusive new music, sometimes even before the songs have been released (with the artist’s permission, of course). The first lens filter that had music in the background sampled the song “Now and Later” by Sage the Gemini. This resulted in Sage the Gemini gaining over 4 million followers on Spotify. More recently, Ed Sheeran turned to Snapchat to give a brief 30-second preview of a new song; this, too, was only available for a weekend before it disappeared.

A Personal Touch
Artists and producers alike have taken to the Snapchat model, as it doesn’t breach any licensing laws and has no threat of piracy, unlike YouTube or Facebook where the content is uploaded “forever.” Furthermore, because of the personal touch of filming from an individual’s perspective (without character limits), fans can access exclusive events like the VMAs through what feels like a candid lens. Music videos and performances were uploaded directly for millions of viewers to watch instantaneously, without editing or special effects.

The Future of Snapchat
Many artists and DJs also have their own Snapchat accounts, which allows them to market themselves in an open way. As Snapchat continues to grow from their partnerships with other creative enterprises, it’s quite probable that more song previews and exclusive premieres will continue to be showcased on the app — even if only for a few hours.

Snap’s first major project was Snapchat Spectacles, which are sunglasses that allow you to record short clips of video. These videos are then sent wirelessly back to the Snapchat app, for you to send to friends and family. They allow others to see the world as you do, and to capture moments that you might not be able to capture quickly enough with a phone or camera.

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Snap is Working on a Drone
According to The New York Times, Snap is now working on a drone that can take pictures and record video from a bird’s eye view. Like Snapchat Spectacles, the drone is expected to then wirelessly transmit photos and video back to the app. You can then share the videos or photos with other users, or save them to your device.

Little information has leaked about the drones, however. It is still unknown how serious this project is — it could be released to the public, or it could not be. If it is released, it’s still unclear as to when it could possibly become available for consumers to purchase. Still, it is likely to be successful among Snapchat’s main user base — teenagers.

Snap’s Success
Either way, Snap is moving in the right direction by expanding its offerings. Snapchat has had a lot of success over the years, especially among teenagers. More than two billion messages are sent via Snapchat per day, and the average user opens the app about 18 times per day. They’ve had so much success that Facebook and Instagram have both introduced many features that mimic Snapchat features. In other news, The New York Times also reported that Snap’s stock has gone up. The company is now worth almost $25 billion.

The Future of Snap
In addition to drones, Snapchat is also very interested in the future of augmented reality. Snap already considers Snapchat to be a form of augmented reality, by offering users the chance to add amusing filters, such as dog ears or a flower crown, to a selfie. Snap’s CEO believes that augmented reality should be utilized for a more effective way to communicate and that it offers much more than a simple photograph.

Before you update the app, make sure that you have enough space on your device for app and software updates, in addition to new apps, files, and photos. Many social networking apps, and messaging apps like WhatsApp, bloat in size over time because of all of the data they collect and store. To prepare for the update, clean out your WhatsApp app with dfndr security’s WhatsApp Cleaner. Doing so will remove old, unwanted files so that you have more space on your device. If you want to keep any old files, though, you can still do so — you can specifically select which files you want to remove from your phone. Click here to remove old, unwanted files from WhatsApp:

Another Way to Keep in Touch With Friends and Family
Unlike Snapchat and Instagram, the feature is only available to your WhatsApp contacts — other WhatsApp users that you don’t know can’t see your status updates. You can share your status updates with select individuals or all of your contacts. Since WhatsApp originally started as a way for you to keep in touch with friends and family — especially if they’re spread out over many countries — this new status feature is a great way to celebrate their birthday. It gives you a more personal way to stay in touch with others.

What Does the Status Update Offer?
Previously, you were only able to add text to your WhatsApp status update. Now, you can add photos, videos, and GIFs to better express yourself. You can share videos up to 45 seconds long — a serious improvement from other video-sharing apps. Similar to Snapchat and Instagram, your status updates only last a certain amount of time. After 24 hours, your WhatsApp status will disappear. This is meant to encourage you to constantly update your status. If anyone responds to your status update, you’ll see it in a private message, not a public comment chain. Further, like the rest of WhatsApp’s offerings, all of your status updates will feature end-to-end encryption.

That’s why it’s important to use dfndr’s WhatsApp Cleaner regularly to clean out the app by discarding old and unwanted files. Doing so will help to free up space on your phone for new photos, apps, and more. WhatsApp Cleaner will even show you exactly how much space you can save by removing old files. You can choose which files, and from which date, you want to remove. That way, you won’t delete any old files that you want to keep on the app. Click here to start removing old WhatsApp files:

WhatsApp Status
Facebook and Instagram have already introduced Snapchat-like features on their apps, so it was only a matter of time before WhatsApp joined them. WhatsApp is now adding a Stories-like feature that allows users to post videos or photos to their status update. The new feature will be called WhatsApp Status, and like Stories, it will allow users to post photos or videos in a timed sequence. The photos or videos will then disappear after 24 hours.

However, WhatsApp Status offers more than posting timed photos and videos. You can share GIFs to your status and post videos that are up to 45 seconds long — quite a difference from other Stories features that only allow 10 seconds of video. As with the rest of WhatsApp, all Status updates have end-to-end encryption, so no need to worry about the privacy of your content. In addition to that, all Status updates will only be shared with your contacts.

How to Use WhatsApp Status
Make sure that your WhatsApp app is updated to the latest version. If you’re using the latest version, you’ll see a Status bar at the top of the screen. You can add a Status update by clicking the “+” button at the bottom of the screen. You can choose a photo, video, or GIF from your gallery, or else take a new photo or video. Your Status update will then appear in the Status bar, and you’ll be able to see how many people view it. The privacy of your Status update can also be adjusted, and your contacts can reply to your update, if desired.

Even though Twitter has many of the same features as the other social networking apps — you can “friend” users, share articles and photos, and communicate with a variety of people, among others — Twitter has not seen the same success. Further, Twitter is probably not your primary news source, unlike Facebook — more than 50% of Facebook users receive their news from the social network. Since characters on Twitter are limited to 140, this social network hasn’t been the best outlet for typing out extensive news stories. However, it has been successful at delivering breaking news quickly.

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The searching required for finding news on Twitter can also dissuade people from using it as a news outlet. For example, you often have to dig through multiple hashtags and read through a number of pointless tweets to find what you’re looking for. However, the “explore” tab on Twitter is about to change all of this.

The explore feature on Twitter conglomerate all of their users’ favorite interests into one news section. Utilizing advanced algorithmic technologies, Twitter personally tailor your explore tabs to your needs. For example, if you frequently search for sports on Twitter, then you can expect to see plenty of sports information on your explore feature. The accounts you follow are also taken into account for your explore tab.

News is now easier than ever to access on Twitter thanks to this development. Instead of searching all over Twitter to find your news, it is now right in front of your eyes on the explore tab. Moreover, these links lead to other websites, not just other short tweets. Thus, if there is a piece of breaking news on your explore tab, you will be redirected to a news website when you click on the story.

As a result, Twitter is now a much more attractive site for the dissemination of news. Facebook now has a viable competitor when it comes to news on social media outlets. Hopefully this news competition will facilitate a variety of different means to access your daily news sources on social media.