Dangers of Owning a Smartphone

Is the smart phone the most dangerous thing a person can own? That is certainly the message that a CNN Money article wanted to get across. The very features that make a smart phone attractive to its users – the fact that it is, well, smart – is the trait that also makes it dangerous; one can even say that smartphones are too smart for their users’ own good.  Here’s why.

If, for some unfortunate reason, you lose your smartphone, and it lands in the hands of an unscrupulous individual, you stand to lose more than just your gadget. Looking back a few years when the mobile phone could do nothing more than send and receive calls and text messages, there were fewer things to worry about when you lose your phone. Now, the finder of a smartphone can have the power to ruin one’s social life, or worse, destroy one’s finances.

Smartphones now also serve as wallets and bank accounts, and a lot of its users take advantage of the convenience of being able to do such things as manage their accounts or transfer money using their smart phones.

Nikki Junker, social media coordinator and victim advisor at Identity Theft Resource Center, shared: “It’s crazy the amount of information on that phone — it’s like carrying a mini-computer around with you, except that more people know the settings on their computer than they do on their phones at this point… People are incredibly at risk as technology improves.”

I’m not saying, though, that you would be better off with an ordinary mobile phone, because smartphones do carry a lot of advantages with them. Just make sure that you protect yourself and your phone through anti-virus protection, and doing little things like refraining from directly accessing a bank website as opposed to downloading an app, or logging out of bank apps or sites that contain your financial information. Also ensure that you are knowledgeable about remote wipe-out services that are available on your smartphone, such as the Mobile Me of the iPhone.