Mobile Security: This is not the data you’re looking for

So this week I was asked to be an “expert” for a TV news piece.  The general topic was about mobile device monitoring, and the implications to privacy.

The interviewer could have gone many ways on this, but basically he wanted to know if there was any hope for privacy in the digital age.

Honestly?  I don’t know the answer to that question.  There was a Wall Street Journal article about this very topic, just today.  They don’t know the answer either.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304704504579432823496404570?mod=ITP_journalreport_0&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304704504579432823496404570.html%3Fmod%3DITP_journalreport_0

I do know, however, there is one thing we can do now to try to protect our data from people taking it without our consent:  turn off your phone.

Oh yes, you can password protect it, and encrypt it, and turn off roaming, and your GPS.  But most of the attack vectors work on the presumption that you’re using your phone.  And for most of us, our phones are on just in case, while we’re bored, because we’ve got nothing better to do.  So, turn it off.  Talk to someone.  Observe the beautiful Ohio weather.  Get a(nother) life.

If this isn’t possible, check out some of the tools in the WSJ article – they’re kinda cool.

 

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