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It requires a sense of extra caution, perhaps bordering on paranoia, for most people to consider the risks they are taking when storing sensitive information on their mobile phones

Delta Milayo Ndou Digitaldialogue

We seem to trust so completely in the impenetrability of these mobile devices as to not have sufficient vigilance about what data we store in them. If someone stole your phone today, how much of your life and privacy would they have gained access to?

Take a moment and consider the actual value of your mobile phone, not in terms of its price but rather its contents, particularly whether your dignity could survive should the contents of your phone be splashed all over the media.

The problem with how we use phones is that we use them absent-mindedly; we don’t necessarily give much thought to what or how much we are storing, documenting and archiving in mobile devices.

From banter to business to romantic fantasies we engage in and store conversations in our phones by way of WhatsApp, Facebook, Viber and all sorts of applications housed in our devices.

From banking to work emails, to study credentials — many of us keep sensitive information easily accessible by defaulting to “always save password” so that we don’t have to constantly log in and log off when using our trusted devices.

We reckon that as long as we can lock-screen our phones using weird patterns or complex passwords or rely on touch ID (fingerprint) to secure our devices — we have sufficiently secured our information.

Many people keep valuables in their bedrooms but don’t feel pressure to lock the drawer because they lock the bedroom door and then lock the front door and then padlock the gate and then spend the rest of their day with a reasonable sense of security.

It requires a sense of extra caution, perhaps bordering on paranoia, for most people to consider the risks they are taking when storing sensitive information on their mobile phones.

Certain assumptions often influence how we use mobile phones and the greatest one of those assumptions is that it’s YOUR phone, so no one else can or has access to it.

Perhaps if we stopped to consider the ramifications of our phones falling into the wrong hands, we would realise that what you really lose when you lose your phone is not the gadget itself but something far more pricey though intangible — your privacy.

The folly of pressing “send”

Think before you press “send”. Whether you are (unwisely) sending a nude or (inadvisedly) sending a work email, as long as the device you are using can be removed from your possession through your own error or through criminal means — you need to reflect more on the information you send.

You also need to reflect more on whom you are sending the information to.

Generally, mobile phones are not just custodians of an individual’s secrets; they are also custodians of other people’s secrets who send their thoughts, images and videos to those they trust to keep them.

With applications like WhatsApp, some mobile phones are like church confessionals – lovers share romantic fantasies and best friends share dark secrets; and families hold confidential tribunals by way of WhatsApp groups.

Sometimes your phone doesn’t even have to get lost or stolen for your privacy to be breached and your sensitive information leaked.

Sometimes you just trust the wrong people with your private thoughts and deeds.

It used to be that when people gossiped, they would just narrate events (real or imagined) but now many people go a step further. They want empirical-based gossip, evidence-based gossip so they take screenshots of private conversations that weren’t meant for public consumption and share them with unintended recipients.

It is the height of disrespect, poor manners and lack of common decency to take screenshots of conversations that are private and circulate them wantonly.

It is an even greater violation when it’s nudes being leaked and distributed.

The argument I have encountered often sounds like victim blaming, with commentators asking — why do they even take such pictures or videos to begin with?

I learnt a Latin phrase from one of my lawyer friends when she was putting up a spirited argument about why it is the victim’s fault when their nudes or private material are leaked to the public.

She said such cases of breach of privacy fell under a doctrine called “Volenti Non Fit Injuria”, which means “to one who is willing, no harm is done”.

Basically, if you make the decision to press “send” and share stuff with someone, your willingness to entrust him or her with it means you have no one to blame but yourself should your trust be abused.

Volenti is the concept of voluntary assumption of risk, so in pressing “send”, you are expressing a willingness to run the risk of exposure, of breach or of violation.

Audit the data on your device

and press “delete”

People tend to get attached to certain data on their phone. We tend to be sentimental, so we archive and store all sorts of data.

May I recommend that you pick your phone and do an audit of the information you have stored, then imagine losing your gadget and consider what information you wouldn’t want to fall in anyone else’s hands. Then delete it.

Go beyond just deleting it — make sure it is permanently deleted and thereby irretrievable.

Of course, the more sensible advice would be to talk about ways of securing your gadget so that you can keep all your sensitive information secure and not have to suffer conflicted emotions from deleting data that you’re attached to.

But I hinted earlier that a little paranoia and a bit of extra caution is not misplaced.

Just go online and Google the numerous ways in which your phone can be hacked and in which way your mobile device’s security can be compromised.

Whatever your phone model, there’s probably a YouTube video or two giving very concise, step-by-step, hacking-for-dummies tutorial on how to breach the security of your device.

You are probably thinking “this is Zimbabwe” so hacking is not a real concern.

Yet every sex tape and every nude that has ever leaked and spread via the Press, WhastApp and social media was likely retrieved from a mobile device that — at the very least — had a pin code or pattern code or password code.

How were those devices “cracked” and how was that information retrieved?

It would be so much better to have nothing to hide on your phone than hope that what you’ve hidden (behind whatever security you think is impenetrable) can’t or won’t be discovered.

And it is ironic that we choose to hide sensitive, private and highly confidential material in gadgets that we constantly move around with — publicly.

We seem to trust so completely in the impenetrability of these mobile devices as to not have sufficient vigilance about what data we store in them. If someone stole your phone today, how much of your life and privacy would they have gained access to?

 Delta is Head of Digital Services at Zimpapers and a PhD scholar researching on digital media, disruptive technologies and journalistic practice. Follow her on Twitter: @deltandou