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Two out of every three people are addicted to their mobile phone. The average user touches their smart phone 2,617 times a day. It is no wonder that most people view their cell phone as detailed summary of their personal life. This convenience comes at a price. A recent from report from Kensington found that 70 million smartphones are lost each year, with only 7 percent recovered.

There are things you should never store in your cell phone. Readers Digest says that keeping valuable info on your mobile is dangerous to your privacy and your wallet. You open yourself up to an invasion of privacy, identity theft and straight-up theft. Here are some things you should not keep on your phone.

Your passwords

If you keep your passwords on your mobile, you are putting you privacy at risk. Even if you keep them in a note, a document or even in auto-fill on your mobile, you’re putting your data at risk. The article says if you lose your phone, someone might easily see your “cheat sheet.”  Because everyone snoops through mobile phones. Even if you store your passwords on your mobile phone they can end up stored in the cloud, still putting your accounts at risk. Instead consider a password manager such as Keeper, or LastPass. That way all of your passwords can be accessed by you using one strong master password.

Your face and fingerprints

If you really want to keep your cell phone secure, don’t use biometrics to open your phone (or any of its apps or accounts). There are many reasons why biometrics like fingerprints don’t make you more secure. Facial recognition apps are more dangerous that using a password. The author says the simple fact is that a phone that requires a password to unlock it requires more steps to unlock. That makes the mobile phone more secure.

Your private photos and videos

You may have cleaned up your Facebook account, but what about your phone? What photos and videos do you store on your phone? If you have photos you wouldn’t want your spouse, children, or boss to see, then you shouldn’t store those photos on your smartphone according to the article. Media stored on your phone is saved in the cloud outside of your control.

Your naughty photos are one problem. Another is any photos containing private information. While photos of credit cards and ID can help you keep track of “what’s in your wallet,” they can also leave your information vulnerable to hacking. Again the photos are stored on the cloud. As with your naughty photos, Readers Digest suggests you store your pictures ID on a PC that only you have access to in a password-protected album.

Anything on your work phone

Do not save anything personal on an employer-provided mobile. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. The phone you were issued by your employer comes at a steep price: your privacy. You should have no expectation of privacy for anything you do on that phone. For your personal life the article recommends using a separate phone and phone number. One budget-minded option is a burner phone.

Your online bank account

Digital banking in the US is expected to grow from 197 million users in March 2021 to 217 million by 2025. But the convenience online banking affords—the ability to bank anywhere, anytime— comes at a cost: your privacy. Carrying your bank account with you on your phone means that you’re risking losing control of it in the event you lose your phone…or even lose track of an old phone that you no longer use they warn.

To manage the risk, you might consider avoiding doing your online banking on your phone. Instead, do it on a computer that never leaves your home. If you find that you simply must take your online banking with you wherever you go, just be sure to use a strong, unique password to unlock your banking app.

Your home address

Storing your home address in navigation app like Waze or Google Maps makes getting home from anywhere super-easy. But it can also leave you vulnerable. If a thief ends up with your phone, they can simply click on “home,” or “work,” and see what you’ve stored, and pay you a visit.

If you lose your mobile phone that are some steps you need to take according to Consumer Reports. As soon as you get your new mobile phone.

Use strong password protection on your mobile phone

This is your first and strongest line of defense. You need a strong password, because one that’s easy to guess could unlock your phone and allow someone to override the biometric safeguards.

Skip the simple 4-digit PIN and instead create a strong password that contains a string of at least eight characters that include some combination of letters, numbers, and special characters that don’t form recognizable words or phrases, especially those that could be associated with you.

Password protection comes with another safeguard according to Consumer Reports. After several unsuccessful tries to enter a passcode, some phones will lock your device for a short period of time. This slows down attempts to access your phone. There’s also a setting on the latest Android phones that automatically erases all of your personal data after 10 unsuccessful log in attempts. Here’s how to activate it. Go to:

• Settings | Lock Screen | Secure Lock Settings | and toggle the Auto Factory Reset option to switch it on. (The labels may vary slightly on other Android models.)

Enable location tracking

You must turn on the global positioning settings (GPS) in order to find a missing phone on a map. To enable this setting on an Android phone go to:

• Settings | Security | Find My Device and toggle Find My Device.

Back up your photos and videos

Consider using a carrier-neutral service to back up your mobile. Apple’s iCloud or Android’s Google Drive may make it easier to retrieve your memories should your next phone be from a different carrier. Phone carriers, phone makers, and operating systems also offer free over-the-air backup for photos, settings, and more. These options can limit you if you select a new carrier for your next mobile phone.

Write down your phone’s unique ID number

Smartphones have a unique serial number known as an IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) or MEID (Mobile Equipment Identifier). Unlike other information stored on the phone’s removable SIM card, these numbers are etched into its circuits and are difficult to alter. Your carrier already has this number and can use it to put the phone on a missing phone list. Some police departments ask for either of these numbers when you report a stolen phone. With the numbers they’ll be able to return a phone to you if it’s recovered. To find your phone’s unique IMEI or MEID number, use any of the following steps:

• Dial *#06# from your phone. The number may pop up on your screen.
• On an Android phone go to: Settings | About Phone. The number should be on that screen.

After the phone is gone, the sooner you act, the better your chances of retrieving your phone and securing your data. Here are key actions to take according to CR.

Seek and (possibly) destroy your mobile phone

It is important that the minute you learn your phone is missing, you send it commands you think are appropriate. Time is of the essence because these next steps requires your phone to be on and have some battery life left.

As soon as possible, call or text your phone from another device. That might be all it takes if your phone is just misplaced nearby.

Then log on to your Find My Phone service from a secure device. For an Android phone, go to Google’s Find My Device in a browser. Use the service to make your phone play a sound. You can also lock the screen and display a message for someone who finds your phone. An honest person may come across your device and notify you via the contact info on the screen. If you think the bad guys have your phone, you can erase the data on it using Find My Device.

Report the Loss to Your Service Provider

Inform your mobile carrier that your phone has been lost or stolen. It can suspend service to prevent anyone from using the device on its network. They may also mark the phone as unusable even on a new carrier or with a different SIM card. Note that your device will still be usable over WiFi. You can notify your provider by going to one of its stores, calling, or logging on to its website.

• AT&T: Call 800-331-0500 or go to AT&T’s Suspend page.
• T-Mobile: Call 800-937-8997 or go to My T-Mobile, and in the My Line section click on your device name to find the Report Lost or Stolen option.
• Verizon: Call 800-922-0204 or go to the Suspend or Reconnect Service page in My Verizon and follow the prompts.

Change Your Important Passwords

Once you realize your phone is in danger, go to a secure PC,  log in to every account you had on your phone (banking, shopping, email, etc.) and change your passwords. Start with your email account. Then change the financial and shopping accounts that have your credit card on file, such as Amazon or your bank. Next move on to social networks. If you’ve set up a password manager, this task will be easy.

Report the Loss to the Police and File an Insurance Claim

Notify the police. This not only launches an official recovery attempt but also helps speed up the process of making an insurance claim (if your covered). You might also need a police report to dispute fraudulent credit card charges, and some credit card issuers will reimburse you for a stolen phone.

Wipe your mobile phone anyway

If you recover your phone You never know what malicious app or spyware someone may have installed while the phone was out of your hands. To be on the safe side, reset the phone to factory settings. If you see an option to erase everything, make sure you select it. Before you nuke the phone, check your backups to make sure that you have copies of all the photos and videos that were on your phone.  On an Android phone, go to:

• Settings | System | Advanced | Reset Options | Erase All Data (factory reset).

 

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Related article

• Why You Should Upgrade Your Android Phone Every Two Years (Review Geek)

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.