This article was published on November 17, 2015

Study: Smartphone users fear leaked bank data more than leaked nudes


Study: Smartphone users fear leaked bank data more than leaked nudes

An 11-nation survey by antivirus company, Avast, provided interesting insight about what is actually important to smartphone users in terms of security. The survey polled nearly 25,000 people and the results were, well, not what you’d guess.

Probably the most surprising bit of the study was smartphone owners feared the release of their financial information over that of leaked nude photos.

In all 11 countries, those polled reported that leaked nudes would be far less troubling both currently and in the future than leaked financial information.

The poll shows the United States being the least concerned about nude photo leaks, and Argentina being closer to a 50-50 split.

Here are the full results:

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 2.33.10 PM

The poll also goes on to reveal other interesting insights, such as the US, India, France, and Czech Republic being the most ashamed of their browsing history. Brazil, India and the UK show the most fear they’d be divorced if a spouse should spy their browsing history.

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 2.38.10 PM

We also learned that Spain, Czech Republic and France reported the highest number of racy photos or videos while Germany, Argentina and the UK like to get dirty via text message.

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 2.40.11 PM

The interesting part is that a lot of these fears can be eased with a strong password or biometric security such as the thumbprint scanner on many cellphones, but many people don’t even bother with locking the homescreen.

Spain, France and Germany are the most security-conscious of the nations represented while Brazil, Mexico and Argentina would probably be better off not owning smartphones at all. The United States is nestled right between Russia and India with 65.4 percent reporting they lock their devices.

The moral of the story, the United States has some catching up to do if it wants to compete with Spain in terms of stored nudes or the ability to secure them.

Smartphone owners value banking data over their nude pics, survey says [Avast via Ars Technica]

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