How Safe is Your Phone in the Hands of a Stranger?
On a recent trip down south, my smartphone was lost/stolen. In the initial panic of its loss, I retraced my steps, checked with the customer service desk, and even asked random people who had been in that area if they had seen my phone. I also had a friend with me and she called my phone for me, but unfortunately it was already turned off. Which means that someone had found it and was not planning on returning it.
With the realization that I was not going to get my phone back, the feeling of inconvience turned into sheer panic with the thought of all the information that was on my phone. Not only did I have almost all of my personal information on there, but I also used that phone for business emails. Luckily, nothing was accessed and I was able to change all my passwords. I was also thankful for the fact that I had recently put a passcode on my phone, and after 3 tries, the phone would be disabled.
After all this happened, I came upon an article about some scary statistcs. They were based off of a study that was done by "intentionally " losing 50 smartphones. The "lost" smartphones were placed all over North America - New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Ottawa. None of the phones had passcodes on them, and all the phones were clearly labeled with the "owners" name and contact information. Here are some of the scary statistics:
- 50% tried to contact the "owner" and left their contact info.
- 96% of the phones were accessed
- 89% had personal apps and info accessed
- 83% Had corporate/business apps and info accessed
- 70% had both personal and corporate accessed.
So, basically what I learned is that even if a sweet little old lady found your phone, she would go through it before returnng it.
If you want to read about the enitre article click here.
