How to delete all cookies and usage data from your Android mobile

You want keep your mobile clean and eliminate all the trace that is leaving when you use the Internet? One of the most effective ways is to clear the entire cookie record: both in the mobile browser and the data saved by the applications. We explain the processes.

The more we use the mobile, the more data about our use accumulates. Both at the system level and within each application: the information it keeps about us is a lot. And surely you have heard of ‘cookies’ or cookies, an element associated with privacy and also with web browsing. It is not something that we can observe with the naked eye since they are stored in the memory of the phone, within the browser, but they say a lot about how we are. That is why it is convenient to know how to eliminate them to do it from time to time.

Delete cookies from your mobile web browser

First things first: send all the cookies and navigation indicators. For this you will have to open the web browser that you use regularly (Google Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Samsung’s browser, Opera …) and enter the settings. The process is simple:

• Open the browser and go to the app settings (usually in the three menu items).
• Access the advanced settings and look for the ‘Privacy’ option.
• Go to ‘Clear browsing data‘.
• Check the option ‘Delete cookies’ and proceed with the action. Additionally, you can delete your browsing history and all files stored in the cache.

Keep in mind that the process prevents the webs from being able to track you since they will not have cookies to read (you must do this process frequently), but this has a counterpart: you lose access to the pages in which you have logged in and some of the information that you have been able to save in them (It is a function of cookies). The password should not be lost if you save it in your Google account (Chrome recovers it, for example).

If you are concerned about cookies, it is best to browse in incognito mode: when closing the session they should be deleted by default. Firefox Focus it’s a very good option, too Brave.

Clear app data

Apps accumulate a huge amount of usage data, both in the form of cache memory and other personal information. If you are concerned about the excess of such information, it is very easy to finish with a stroke of the pen what is stored on the phone. Proceed as follows:

• Access the mobile settings and go to ‘Applications’.
• Find all the apps that you use frequently, preferably the social ones. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat, for example.
• To delete all the data they have on the phone, look for the ‘Storage’ option, within the settings of each app, and proceed to delete the data.
• Once you reopen each application, you just have to log in: the information saved in the cloud is not lost, yes you will erase everything that was on the phone.

Deleting the data from the applications allows you to save a little memory, not so much to maintain your privacy since the applications will have been in charge of backing up all this information on the servers. Even so, it is not a bad idea to erase data and start using the apps in a more measured way.

Additionally, you can delete everything that the applications have saved on their servers from you. This is more complicated and depends on each service: you should look in your privacy options, within the account settings.

How to delete all the data that Google saves about you

Google stores a lot of personal information on the phone, but everything is managed from your cloud. There you can delete from your activity log (if you have never accessed you will be surprised how much there is registered) to the applications that have access to your data. For it:

• Access your phone’s settings and search for Google settings.
• Go into ‘Manage your Google account‘.
• Go to ‘Data and personalization’.
• Go to ‘My activity’ and delete what you want: you just have to click on the ‘Filter by date and product‘, mark the period and manage what Google saved from you, including all the use of your Android.
• Find the option ‘Data about what you create and do’ and click on ‘Go to the Google Control panel’.
• You will see all the data that Google has saved from the applications. From there you can check the information; having a link to manage the data saved from the specific service.

Your Google account stores a lot of information related to the use you make of your Android: you should take a look at it frequently and delete what you don’t want to be saved. You can even manage its automatic deletion, including the location.

Last option: restore the phone

What do you want to clean the phone and eliminate any traces of use? It only remains to restore it to how it was from the factory. Yes indeed, everything is deleted: both the usage data and the applications and photos themselves. Do it only if you are convinced that you need to leave your Android as new. Because you are going to sell it, give it to a friend or simply because you want to start from scratch.

To erase an Android and restore it to its original factory state you must do the following:

• Enter your Android settings and look for the ‘Reset’ option. It is usually found within the backup settings, also in the advanced settings. The best thing is that you use the search engine.
• Locate the option ‘Factory reset‘.
• Click on the reset and follow the steps. Remember that all the mobile will be erased.
• If you don’t want to delete the whole phone you can ‘Reset settings’. This reset does not remove all personal data from the applications, but it does much of its configuration and customization.

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How to delete all cookies and usage data from your Android mobile

was originally published in

Xataka Android

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Ivan Linares

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