Consumer Reports just announced that 3.1 million American people were victims of smartphone theft in 2013. That’s like the entire population of Jamaica (and more) having their smartphone stolen. And that’s just the devices that were stolen, another 1.4 million are estimated as lost and never recovered. Together, that’s 4.5 million lost and stolen devices!
A Consumer Reports survey indicates that, despite the vast amount of data on these devices, many users still lack sufficient security:
- Only 36% of owners use PIN (yet up 50% over 2012)
- Only 29% of owners back up their data (despite easy ways to automate this)
- Only 22% of owners have device tracking software
- Only 8% of owners have software to remotely delete data
It’s kind of a grim picture, isn’t it? Most people aren’t taking even the most basic precautions with their phones, with are super expensive devices to begin with, plus all those other costs like getting a non-subsidized new phone or dealing with identity theft and fraud.
Given how much personal information these devices contain—from photos, contacts, and e-mail accounts to social-networks, shopping, and banking apps—it’s understandable that you’d freak out if either misfortune happened to you.
Freak out is an understatement, don’t you think?
We can do better! We don’t need regulators to tell us how to secure our phones, it’s actually pretty simple. Set up a good back-up system to automatically run your back-ups every night, set a PIN (even if it is kind of annoying), and install Absolute LoJack to remotely delete data on stolen devices and help you track it down if it is stolen! Your identity is protected. Your data is protected. Your device gets back to you, where it belongs.