No one travels without a phone, tablet or laptop anymore. Many also take mobile devices with them from work to send that last email. You probably recognize it. But what you often don’t realize is that your mobile phone is less well protected abroad than in your own country. Therefore, here are some tips for traveling safely with all your mobile devices. You naturally want to protect your data well, so read this carefully!
Telephone care before departure
First of all, you should take good care of your phone before you travel. That means making sure your phone lasts the entire trip. Check your phone carefully so you don’t encounter any surprises along the way. For example, make sure your charging station is clean. Make an appointment with the store where you bought the mobile phone or with your provider. Cleaning the charging point takes about half an hour. At the same time, take a new charging cord with you.
Always back up your data. This way you always have them at hand, even if your phone breaks. Think of the many photos on it. Thousands, right? You don’t want to lose that! Buy a screen protector. You don’t want any damage to the phone when you travel. It is incredibly expensive to have the damage to your screen repaired abroad. An impact-resistant cover also helps, so you can drop it again.
Download everything while you’re still at home. You have the fastest and cheapest internet at home, so put those movies on it, the games, etc. You don’t want to download on foreign networks. Prepare your movies, casino apps for online slots and music in advance. Do you want to watch something on the plane? Then you have download options for films and series from your streaming service. Take advantage of that! Then your flight will be over in no time!
WiFi when traveling
When you’re on the road, you’ll soon find yourself on wireless networks such as public Wi-Fi. A hacker can do well on this network, so be alert! If you log into a network that doesn’t have a password, you’re really not secure. Turn off the ‘automatically connect to all networks’ setting on your phone. It is very easy to unsuspectingly log in somewhere without realizing it. And you don’t always want that! In that case, using your own mobile data abroad is better than connecting to free WiFi networks.
When you’re on the road, it’s important to pay attention when using wireless networks, such as public Wi-Fi. Hackers can use these networks to steal your data. Be alert to networks without a password. If you log into a network without a password, you are poorly protected. Turn off the ‘automatically connect to all networks’ setting on your phone. This prevents you from accidentally logging into an unsafe network. If you must use public Wi-Fi, you can better protect your data by using a VPN. A VPN encrypts your data, making it unreadable for hackers.
Travel insurance
Of course, you can also experience the loss or theft of your smartphone or laptop. The thought alone gives many people sloshing armpits. Please note: your mobile phone is not included in ‘luggage’ with travel insurance. You must take out separate insurance for this. This is especially important if you have a business laptop with you. So do it!
Data protection
In the event of loss or theft, it is important that you can lock or delete your data remotely. On newer operating systems you will find this option under the settings of your device. At Apple, for example, this is ‘Find my iPhone’ via iCloud.com. On Android devices you have the option ‘Find my phone’ under ‘Settings’. However, the feature only works if you have a Google account and your location is enabled.
It is also useful to inform your provider so that they can block your SIM card. What you should not do is report theft or loss online. This is done via DigiD by text message, which is of course sent to your phone. You won’t gain anything from that.
