I’ve got a quick question for you Plugged In readers: What would you say is the most precious thing in your life right now?
If you automatically thought of your house or, maybe, your car, that would make sense. Those tend to be big-ticket items for most everybody. But if you instantly thought, “My smartphone,” then you’d be part of a large and growing segment of Americans.
We may not have stopped to think about this lately, but our phones are quickly becoming the repositories of our lives. And for some people it’s their only connection to everything. With a smartphone you can connect with any friend or loved one by call, text or e-mail at any time, day or night. You can play games, watch movies or TV and entertain yourself when you’re bored. You can surf the web. Buy a new outfit. Program your DVR from the back of a bus. Tell your house to lock the doors and set the alarm. It’s incredible. If you own a smartphone, nearly everything you might need is at your fingertips or sitting right now in your purse or pocket.
Of course, your phone’s value isn’t just based on what it can do for you, but what it has on you. In the right hands, or rather wrong hands, that little mechanical traitor could spill your passwords, your credit card info, your vital data, your business or school work, your daily patterns, your secret proclivities … not to mention your Honey’s phone number. Who wants any of that stuff getting out?
According to a recent survey performed by the security company Lookout, our smartphones have become such valuable parts of our lives, two thirds of us would even put ourselves in danger—you know, step out in moving traffic or stand up to the guy with bulging biceps—just to get our phones back. Lookout’s researchers went on to say that 50% of phone theft victims would readily fork over a cool 500 clams to get their precious stolen pocket buddy back, and over a third said $1,000 was not too high a price for its return. And those amounts are above and beyond the beaucoup bucks their phones cost to begin with.
Oh, and in case you’re thinking about this and starting to sweat over how careless you might be with that important gadget of yours, the survey had a few other informational tidbits, too. For instance, do you know where phones are most often pilfered? At restaurants. A full 16% get picked up there. Bars and nightclubs are next on the list at 11%, workplaces at 6%. Five percent of phones are snatched while their users are walking down the street. And the most common time of day for a good phone theft? Between noon and 5 p.m.
So I’m thinking the only solution is to buy a safe and lock that baby up. You can take it out for holidays and special occasions. At least that way you can be sure that nobody but you will be able to tell your DVR what to do.
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