Lost Phone? There’s an 89% Chance Somebody Tried to Access Data
Losing a smartphone won’t just cost you the price of a new phone. A recent study shows that there’s a strong likelihood it will cost you your privacy as well.
There is a 96% chance that the finder of a lost cellphone will access the device, and an 89% chance that the finder will access it for personal-related apps and information, according to a new study commissioned by the privacy software company Symantec Corp.
The study also found that there is only a 50% chance the finder will try to return the phone to the person who lost it.
Symantec arrived at these conclusions after deliberately “losing” a total of 50 smartphones in five cities: New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Ottawa, Canada.
The phones were preloaded with fake apps that would be instantly recognizable to a finder. They were also equipped with a GPS tracking device, as well as the ability to transmit data, such as when an app was opened, to a central database.
Researchers then left the phones in high-traffic areas like shopping malls, food courts and public transit stops and waited to see what happened.