As I was heading home for Thanksgiving break this past week, I encountered a little bad luck. To my dismay, I arrived at the airport and realized my phone had been stolen. "You probably just lost it," you shrug, but unfortunately no, my fully charged phone was turned off after 2 calls. Despite the many calls to super shuttle and a scouring of the nearby area, the phone refused to materialize. A crime of chance from a shuttle cushion or a stealthy pick pocket? I guess I'll never know. I was immediately reminded of our Stolen Sidekick reading from earlier this year, and would quickly like to explain that I am not looking to punish whoever stole my phone or demand it's return. That ship has sailed. However once I accepted that my beautiful iPhone was actually stolen, I started calculating what I had lost.....and someone else had gained.
On that phone were my facebook and e-mail accounts, both of which were not password protected from inside my own phone. I also had a wells fargo app, which luckily had a password component (I believe =/). Notes detailed my drivers license number from the one occasion I had lost it, and also my new college address. My contact and text messaging history contained many of my personal views on various issues, none of which I wanted this thief reading. My various bookmarks on google maps indicate my house and school, and I am sure there is locational information stored elsewhere on the phone that reveals far too much about who I am and what I do. Not only was there a pure monetary loss, but all this information is now in the hands of some invisible criminal!
This was a side of the technology I had never fully contemplated. I knew of credit cards unlocking identity theft, but never phones. Now these small pieces of technology hold far more that is safe. When we say "my life is on that phone (or computer)" we don't realize quite how literally true it is. I mostly addressed how people could access the data from the outside in this blog, but one lost or stolen phone lends a whole new depth to the informational vulnerability.
An interesting thing to think on. What could we do to change it? I recommend password protecting to all those who don't already. That is certainly not something I will ever overlook again! I guess I will never know if the crook would have just set the phone down if there had been a password. But thats not a mistake anyone should have to learn the hard way. Take my advice, it's worth it.
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