A survey of 4,000 mobile users in the U.S. and the U.K. has found that 40% of people would rather lose their wallet than their mobile device. A significant amount of information is now stored on mobile devices. 94% of users surveyed store telephone numbers while 65% also store address and other contact information on their phones; 83% have digital photos,51% have videos, 48% have calendar information and 40% have music downloads. With ever-increasing phone and network capabilities, this trend of using the phone to store valuable and sensitive data from every aspect of life is set to continue.
Mformation, which supplies mobile device management (MDM) solutions for network operators, said that one consequence of using the phone as a method for creating and storing data and information is that people must now worry about this material if the phone is lost or stolen — 82% of people fear that if their phones were lost or stolen, someone would use the information stored on them for fraudulent means. 90% of those questioned are worried about the loss of their personal data if a mobile device were to go missing, with 72% admitting that the personal information stored on their devices would be difficult to replace. In addition, 40% of respondents even said that losing a mobile would be worse than losing their wallet.
“Operators need to step up to the mark to make sure that their customers are getting the service they expect in terms of security, data recovery and phone setup,” said Matt Bancroft, Vice President, Mformation. “As people continue to increase their reliance on mobile phones for everyday actions, operators have to make sure that they are ready to support this increased commitment by the user. More extensive use of the device is great, but the mobile operators need to underpin this activity by offering capabilities to protect and manage users’ data if things go wrong.”
The research was undertaken by independent research house Coleman Parkes, which asked 4,000 people in the UK and US about problems related to mobile usage.
http://www.mformation.com
