Securing Wi-Fi for Firestick: Best Practices for a Safe Streaming Environment

Watching shows on your Fire TV doesn’t require privacy settings, but it’s crucial to protect your data from malicious hackers. Since your Fire Stick device connects to the internet, hackers can potentially exploit your personal information.

Securing your Fire TV involves taking measures to prevent unauthorized access by internet criminals. In this article, you’ll discover strategies to enhance the safety and confidentiality of your Fire Stick device and Amazon subscription. Implementing these precautions may take time, but the effort will be worthwhile.

Best Practices for Safe Streaming via Firestick

#1 Turn Off Data Monitoring

Amazon’s data monitoring feature, which is automatically enabled when you first purchase your device, poses a significant privacy threat. It allows Amazon to collect user data on app and device usage. While its purpose is to provide users with bandwidth information, it’s clear that it compromises privacy. To disable this setting and prevent Amazon from accessing your app and device data, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Settings from the home screen of your Amazon Fire TV Stick.
2. Open Preferences.
3. From the list of options, select ‘Privacy Settings.’
4. Choose ‘OFF’ for both ‘Device Usage Data’ and ‘Collect App Usage Data.’
5. Return to the Preferences menu.
6. Click on Data Monitoring and toggle it to ‘OFF.’

#2 Use a VPN 

Using an unsecured connection exposes you to online surveillance, throttling, geo-restrictions, and legal issues. However, you can resolve these problems by using a VPN on Amazon Fire Stick. A VPN completely anonymize your IP address and identity. In addition to security, VPN for Firestick improves the content available to you. This is 2 in one: securing Wi-Fi for Firestick and the ability to unblock any movie on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other platforms. As for how to use VPN, there are separate instructions, it is available at the link above.

#3 Enable 2FA

Enabling two-step verification in your Amazon account strengthens security by eliminating vulnerabilities or easy access through your password. You need to perform this action within your Amazon account to activate 2FA for your Fire TV.

To enable Two-Step Verification:

1. Open Two-Step Verification Settings by clicking here.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions.

#4 Delete Saved Wi-Fi Passwords

To prevent your Wi-Fi passwords from being saved and delete any existing saved passwords on your Fire TV device, follow these steps:

1. On your Fire TV device, go to Settings -> Network. You will see the Network settings.
2. Scroll down to find the Save Wi-Fi Passwords to Amazon option. By default, it will be set to On.
3. Select Save Wi-Fi Passwords to Amazon. This will open the Delete Saved Wi-Fi Passwords screen, where you need to confirm that you want to stop saving your network password and delete any Wi-Fi passwords currently saved to Amazon.
4. Choose Delete. This action will disable the saving of your Wi-Fi passwords and remove any saved passwords from your Amazon account.

#5 Verify the App’s Permissions

Before installing any app or game on your Fire TV Stick, carefully review the permissions requested. Some apps may ask for unnecessary access to your contacts and location data. Only grant permissions when necessary for the app to function properly. To control app permissions on your Fire TV Stick, navigate to Settings.

#6 Secure your Amazon account

Your Fire TV experience is secure only as your Amazon account, as everything Fire TV does is connected to it. That’s why it is crucial to ensure the utmost security for your Amazon account. One security solution is to use Mozilla VPN free on your PC when connecting to Amazon and set up a VPN on FireStick. It is also worth setting a strong password. Here’s how to change your existing password:

1. Visit Amazon (or your country’s Amazon domain) and log in to your account.
2. Go to Account & Lists and click on Your Account.
3. Select Login & Security. If Amazon prompts you to log in, enter your password and click Sign-In.
4. Click on the Edit button next to the Password setting. Amazon will display the Change Password page.

#7 Keep Your Software Up To Date

One of the easiest and most effective methods to safeguard your privacy is by keeping the software on your Fire TV Stick up to date. Regular software updates frequently include critical security patches that address vulnerabilities and protect your device from potential threats. By enabling automatic updates, your Fire TV Stick will always have the latest security features.

#8 Opt-Out From Receiving Personalized Advertising

Personalized advertisements can enhance your streaming experience, but they often compromise your privacy. To disable personalized advertising on your Fire TV Stick, go to Settings > Preferences > Privacy Settings and deactivate the “Interest-Based Advertising” option. By opting out of personalized advertising, you can ensure that your viewing habits will not be used for targeted marketing.

Conclusion

FireStick is one of the devices with a lot of personal data: card numbers, access to Amazon services, IP, passwords, etc. Is it worth neglecting such valuable data and thinking that no one needs it? This is rather a rhetorical question, which even looks stupid, but this is precisely the mistake that many make. Moreover, you have quite a lot of protection tools in your hands.