Smartphones store a wealth of valuable personal data—photos, videos,
e-mail, texts, app data, GPS locations, and Web browsing habits—that is
increasingly falling into the hands of advertisers, app makers, law
enforcement, and crooks.
A survey
published recently by the University of California, Berkeley, law researchers suggests
there is a significant disconnect between many people's perception of
the security and privacy of data on their smartphones, and the reality.
The majority of mobile phone users surveyed for the report said, for
example, that they didn't like the idea of other people accessing the
information stored on their mobile phones. More than 80 percent said
they would not want a work colleague to use their phone, and half said
they would not want even close friends to access their device. The
majority of respondents also said they believed their mobile phone to be
as private as their personal computer. The study involved telephoning
1,200 households on a mixture of landlines and mobile devices, and was
funded by Nokia.