Do a better job protecting mobile privacy, Canadians told

Not enough Canadians are taking measures to protect the personal information stored on their mobile devices, the country’s privacy commissioner said Thursday.

That assessment was based on a survey commissioned by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that found, among other things, that just four in 10 of those asked use password locks on their mobile devices or adjust their settings to limit access to personal information stored on these gadgets.

The survey found that 74 per cent own at least one mobile communications device such as a cellphone, smartphone or tablet computer.

Privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in an interview that people seem not to realize how much information is stored on cellphones. Other people’s contact information, text messages, and personal information entered to access various mobile applications are some of the examples she cited.

“Mobile phones increasingly hold a lot of personal information, but it doesn’t seem like Canadians think they do,” she said. “Seventy per cent of them said they don’t use the phones to store personal information.

“But I’m just wondering if either they have older models or they don’t realize what the new phones can do or they’re kind of discounting the fact that phone numbers are the personal information of someone, and so on.”…Read more [via vancouversun]