Have a few scantily clad photos of yourself or your significant other in compromising positions and readily accessible on your mobile device? You’re not alone according to research from security firm AVG. In fact, one in four mobile device users will store “intimate” photos or videos on their smartphone or tablet.
Your mobile phone is a dangerous place to keep photos you’d never want to have leaked. Smartphone theft is frighteningly common, and there’s also the fact you could get hacked or end up losing this saved content by other means (or you know… accidentally sending it to the wrong person or making a photo roll accessible to people it really shouldn’t be seen by). And don’t forget that many of us have either a Dropbox, Google+, Facebook, or other type of cloud storage service that automatically syncs the media from our smartphones to the cloud. That’s another layer of security vulnerabilities to worry about. At the same time as all this is happening, we’re unfortunately becoming more and more comfortable sharing these graphic photos thanks to Snapchat and other similar messaging apps. They’re bringing out the sexter in us all – and the repercussions could be very, very bad.
“This survey has clearly demonstrated that there is confusion in the minds of consumers about what is and isn`t safe or sensible to do with a mobile device,” AVG CEO J.R. Smith said in a statement. In other words, if as many as 25 percent of mobile phone users are saving intimate, promiscuous photos, we might definitely need a lesson in privacy and security.
And judging from AVG’s finding that 70 percent of customers were “unaware of security features that allowed such (intimate) data to be deleted remotely,” it’s evidence to the fact. “Millions of consumers are exposing themselves to risk of personal and professional embarrassment by storing sensitive images on their devices. It is time for the industry to wake up and start educating consumers about privacy and security,” Smith adds. If you truly want to keep a copy of that photo, we suggest you get a secure photo app or back it up to a hard drive and then delete it from your far more accessible galleries. Seriously, you’re all just asking for a sexy photo scandal.
