For Increase Security on a Normal Unrooted Android or Apple Device, I Recommend either ProtonVPN Set to “always on” in Your System
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For a quick attempt to increase security on a normal unrooted Android or Apple device, I recommend either ProtonVPN set to “always on” in your system settings VPN profile, or for Android users get the RethinkDNS app from F-Droid.
If you suspect something fishy is happening, start by just running the Firewall only and observe the logs of what apps are connecting to the Internet and whether they should be.
Once you have a baseline of what’s going on, run Universal Android Debloater which has a nice GUI to run ADB commands on your phone to strip away/turnoff the many system packages that are closer to spyware than necessary for your phone to function.
Start going through RethinkDNS in the apps menu and turn off wifi and cellular access for apps that obviously don’t need the internet (like why does calculator need the internet? it doesn’t, and the calculator can be used to run secret service codes that allow configuration of your phone and I see that as a huge potential attack vector)
Don’t go nuts and turn everything off at once, just start w the most obvious, and then start playing around w how much more you can turn off.
You can’t run separare firewall and VPN apps at the same time, which is why I recommend Rethink as it combines a VPN (when configured properly) or the ability to proxy over Tor, local firewall with logs, and DNS encryption. ProtonVPN is just a VPN, no system firewall, but a good option if you don’t want to think too hard about finetuning a firewall at the system level.
Next is to ensure your home wifi router has a strong admin password (as in the password to login to router settings, not your wifi network password) and selecting any enhanced security settings you see in there.
Also on Android, go to system settings ⇒ Apps ⇒ three stacked dots in upper right corner ⇒ Special access ⇒ review each of these categories and revoke as many permissions as you can unless it’s something you can’t live without like allowing Youtube or Maps to go picture-in-picture.
You’ll be shocked at how many system apps have permissions they really don’t need.
Also good time to check the permission manager which is another option in the Apps⇒three dots
You can also in the Apps permission settings (for individual apps) turn everything off for Google Play and your phone will work just fine.
From there, open Google Play, click your profile in upper right, click settings, and review THOSE permissions and decide if you want to turn off auto-update apps. Then look in your system settings for Software Update or any related settings and (if the risk of being spied on by Big Tech is greater to you than forgoing updates and security patches) disable auto-update and try to give yourself more control over when you update your phone.
This isn’t the guide, just my first thoughts if you’re worried today and want to make some changes.