If you lost your smartphone, what do you think your chances are of recovering it? More importantly, what are the chances that no one would peek into your private information, from your online banking apps and personal files to your email and social networking? Computer security firm Symantec Corp. recently conducted a social experiment about stolen smartphones and the honestly of the people who find them. The results are really surprising.
The project loaded smartphones with various apps and files that were meant to tempt prying eyes, such as password file, cloud files, etc. A contacts file was also included that clearly showed to whom the phone belonged and how to contact the owner. The phones also had built in tracking that would monitor where the phones were located, when and where they were used, and which files and apps were accessed.
The smartphones were then left in various cities around North America, placed in obvious spots for people to find. Then the phones were monitored and the results tarried.
Only fifty percent of people offered to return a phone to its owner, and a full 89 percent of people clicked into personal information that they shouldn’t have.
If there is one thing that we can learn from all of this it is the importance of protecting personal information on smartphones. Lock out your cell phone with password protection. Add your contact information to the outside of the phone to give a good samaritan the chance to return the phone back to you.
If you find yourself the finder of a smartphone with no obvious contact information to access, you can still do a good deed. If you can identify the carrier or brand of phone, you can return it to the store, where the carrier should be able to access records of phone ownership through the serial number.
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