Phone & Device Privacy Checklist

Lock screen is the first control that still matters when the phone is on a café table. PIN/passphrase (or a strong device passcode plus biometrics) beats swipe-to-open. Short auto-lock. Hide notification contents on the lock screen so one-time codes and message previews are not a shoulder-surf. OS updates are the unglamorous second control: brokers and criminals reuse last year's bugs; "I'll update later" is how a known issue stays open. App permissions are the third. Location, microphone, and camera should be While Using or Ask / One-time for almost everything, never Always for a flashlight. Review last-accessed lists. Delete apps you do not use — leftover permission is still a pipe. Notifications on the lock screen are a fourth leak: package-delivery texts, 2FA codes, and relationship messages are readable without unlocking. Hide previews; require unlock for sensitive apps if the OS allows.

Find My / Find My Device is a recovery feature for hardware you own: a map to a laptop you left on a train, a remote lock, an erase. That is legitimate. Stalkerware is the opposite idea: software or settings used to watch a person who did not agree. This course names it only as a risk class — unexpected device-admin apps, unknown MDM, battery drain plus a tracking app you did not install, a partner who "needs to see the map." We do not teach installation, configuration, or bypass. We do not practice it. If that risk is your life, that is a safety and legal problem, not a Cyberlium lab. On a device you own, look at Settings → Privacy (or Security) for apps you do not recognize, uninstall what you installed by mistake, and keep Find My for YOUR lost gear — not for following someone else.

Use your daily driver if you can — settings you will actually keep. Tablets count. A laptop can fill disk-encryption and screen-lock if you have no phone for this hour, but the six-item list below is written for a phone because that is where location/mic/camera and lock-screen OTPs leak most. Do not factory-reset as the lab. Do not jailbreak.

mkdir -p "$HOME/cyberlium-lab"
NOTES="$HOME/cyberlium-lab/device-checklist.txt"

{
  echo "date: $(date -Iseconds 2>/dev/null || date /t)"
  echo "device: my phone/tablet (not someone else's)"
  echo "1_lock_screen: "
  echo "2_hide_lock_notifications: "
  echo "3_os_updated: "
  echo "4_location_reviewed: "
  echo "5_mic_camera_reviewed: "
  echo "6_find_my_for_my_hardware: "
  echo "stalkerware_practiced: no"
} > "$NOTES"
chmod 600 "$NOTES"
cat "$NOTES"

You have a repeatable device list: lock, patch, permissions, notification privacy, and Find My as recovery — with stalkerware named only as a risk you refuse to practice. Next — Lab — 10-Minute Privacy Audit — score yourself 0–10 across Topic 4 (passwords, 2FA, recovery, browser, Wi-Fi, social, EXIF, aliases, lock screen, permissions) and write the file with mode 600.