What Your Mobile Devices Know About You

Have you ever wondered what personal information of yours your device is keeping track of? Many don't. Be it a computer or a phone there are lots of personal data retained in the device. And be careful because cybercriminals are looking for those information. Many times, I have heard people saying "what information can I have that could be of interest to Criminals?" One word IDENTITY. You are who you are!!! Think it this way, Cybercriminals wants identity of someone to impersonate. Because in case of detected crime it could easily be directed to someone else as they have concealed their identity and they get time to find their ways.

If you look at the statistics of cybercrime you can find that on an average $128 is the monetary cost to  victim. Some other stats:

Emails scams sent daily	75 millions
Daily victim of such scams	2000
% of Americans who have experienced cybercrime	73

Having said that, I'd like to list the information retained in different devices like Windows PCs, Macs, Android Tablets and Smart Phones based on category of information. Read this and stay alert. Be careful what you do online. Here goes the list.

Information	How	Windows PCs	Mac	Android Tablets	Smart Phone
Name and Address	Web browser autofill, contacts, address book and other contact managers	√	√	√	√
Passwords	Web browser autofill, stored in the file system	√	√	√	√
Credit Card Numbers	Web browser autofill or downloaded credit card statements	√	√	√	√
Social Security Number	Downloaded tax documents	√	√	√	√
Bank Account Info	Downloaded bank documents	√	√	√	√
Contacts	Contacts, address book or other contact managers	√	√	√	√
Pone Calls	Call log stored in phone	x	x	x	√
Text Messages	Text log stored in phones	x	x	x	√
Recently Accessed Files	List kept by OS or various applications also keep records of recent list of files accessed	√	√	√	√
Deleted Files	Until physical storage space is overwritten, all deleted files can be recovered. And this means files in recycle bin/trash	√	√	√	√
Recently Visited Sites	Browser's history/chache/cookies	√	√	√	√
Current Locations	GPS	x	x	√	√
Recent Locations	GPS/Photo navigation app	x	x	√	√