Does your phone know too much? Here's how to keep your personal info secure

ATLANTA — We spend hours upon hours looking at our phones and computers, and our personal information lives on the internet thanks to companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon.

However, sometimes that information is stolen or gets into the wrong hands.

The most recent data compiled by Consumer Reports found 70 percent of Americans lack confidence that their personal data is private.

So what steps can you take to protect both your privacy and security?

For starters, you should try out what's called two-factor authentication. You can find it in the security settings of places like your Google account.

It adds one extra step to your sign-in process, like pinging your phone to make sure that the person signing in as you really is you.

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The idea is that if your password falls into the wrong hands, you're setting up an extra barrier that prevents the bad guys from getting access.

You can also stop companies from tracking your personal habits.

Facebook has a facial recognition system that can pick you out in photos. You can turn that off in the privacy filters.

If you have an Amazon Echo, the company has recordings of what you ask Alexa.

You can delete those files by accessing the settings for your Echo.

You can say, “Alexa, delete what I just said” or “Alexa, delete everything I said today.”

To limit the data you're sending out altogether, try an alternative search engine like DuckDuckGo which doesn't collect any information from its users.

For texting, apps like Signal offer end to end encryption.

The app even lets you have messages delete from your phone and the phone of the person you are messaging.

Cox Media Group