Security warning for millions of Android phones: check your WiFi settings now

If you have an Android phone, we recommend that you change a setting in the device’s WiFi settings to improve your security.

Mobile phones have a host of features and functionality that are often overlooked. Some of these features are used to improve the overall experience of using your mobile device, while others are intended to help devices perform their tasks efficiently.

The example that we find and that we will talk about in these lines has more to do with the second declaration than with the first, but this does not mean that it is beneficial for the user. And, it turns out that, when it comes to deactivating WiFi on the mobile device, it is not completely deactivated.

Yes, you read it right. When you tap on the WiFi icon in the Android shortcut bar to turn it off, this connection stays in a different active state. You will not be able to access WiFi networks to browse, send a message on WhatsApp or check social networks such as Instagram or Twitter, but your mobile will be searching for WiFi networks.

Why are you doing this search? To be able to offer positioning information to certain applications or services that need to know the location of the mobile device to function correctly. Yes, the Wi-Fi acts as a kind of tracker of routers to connect to and then report its position to the applications that request it.

Android does this to improve location-based services and features, but it’s something users should be aware of firsthand or at least be warned in case this is happening. It is not accepted that the fact of deactivating WiFi means absolutely nothing for the Google operating system.

In case you want to disable Wi-Fi completely and not allow searches for Wi-Fi networks, follow these steps. The first thing is to open the settings of the Android mobile phone, now you have to look for the location section and once inside you have to click on the option that says ‘Search for WiFi and Bluetooth’.

Two options will appear within this last subsection, being the “WiFi Search” the one that interests us. What we have to do is click on it so that the search for WiFi networks is deactivated at all times, even when the phone has WiFi turned off in the device settings as well has commented Tatechtips on TikTok.