Mobile security business Lookout has published a study into lost mobile phones and has launched an interactive website to reveal when and where phones are frequently mislaid. The company analysed data from more than 15 million users worldwide, discovering that a user’s location was a significant factor when it came to phone loss.
Philadelphia residents were found to lose mobile phones twice as often as New York City dwellers, while San Franciscans and New Yorkers lost their phones three times more than Chicagoans. Here in the UK, residents of Manchester lost their handsets twice as often as Londoners; in fact, people living in Manchester lost their phones more than any other city population around the globe.
We Brits are most likely to lose our phones in a pub, while in the USA the top place for a lost or stolen phone is a coffee shop.
Kevin Mahaffey, co-founder and CTO at Lookout, said “Each day, $7 million worth of phones are lost by Lookout users alone, and if unrecovered, it would take a significant toll not only on our wallets, but on our psyche too. Safeguarding your smartphone starts with protecting it from the number one risk you face - losing it.”
Last year, Lookout located 9 million lost smartphones - the equivalent of one phone every 3.5 seconds.
[Lookout Mobile Lost & Found project]
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