Clean Master today announced the findings of a new smartphone privacy survey, which was conducted by TNS as a national poll of 1,000 U.S. adults. The results, which were revealed with the launch of the free new Clean Master app version 4.0 for Android, show that more than half of Americans (52%) would be embarrassed about friends or family seeing certain files or documents on their smartphone. The number one file American’s don’t want others to see on their smartphone isn’t porn or dirty pictures of themselves, but bank account information. 1 in 4 (25%) Americans don’t want that seen by others on their smartphone.
Emails or texts written on a smartphone (24%) came in as a close second, followed by emails or texts received (23%), websites visited (15%), and porn (10%). 8% of Americans said they would be embarrassed about friends or family seeing naked selfies on their smartphone. When asked who Americans most want to prevent from accessing files on their smartphone, friends rank #1 (22%), followed closely by children (21%) and co-workers (21%). Other choices include boss (18%), parents (12%), and spouse or significant other (12%), strangers (12%) and hackers/criminals (8%). Most Americans (81%) feel the need to keep files on their smartphone private. The top reasons why include:
- One third of Americans (29%) fear it will get lost
- 28% fear it will get hacked
- 16% don’t have a security code to keep my phone private
- 6% share their phone with their friends
- 5% share their phone with their significant other
- 5% have naked photos of themselves on their phone
- 5% have naked photos of other people on their phone
The survey also discovered that smartphone privacy concerns vary by gender, with men twice as likely as women to have naked photos of themselves on their phone (7% of men vs. 3% of women) and four times as likely to have naked photos of others (9% of men vs. 2% of women). Conversely, women are more likely than men to not have a security code to keep their phone private (19% women vs. 13% men). Additionally, men are more likely than women to be embarrassed about friends or family seeing the following content on their smartphone:
- Websites they have visited (20% men vs. 11% women)
- Porn (15% men vs. 5% women)
- Photos of others (13% men vs. 5% women)
- Videos of others (8% men vs. 3% women)
Geographic regions of the nation also demonstrated differences in smartphone privacy attitudes of Americans, with those who live in the South (7%) more likely than any other geographic division to need smartphone privacy because they have naked photos of themselves on their smartphone. Those in the South and West (7%) are more likely because they have naked photos of others. Furthermore, out of more than half (58%) of American adults who have a smartphone, 1 in 4 (27%) feel the need to delete data or files to make storage space available, with 14% indicating they feel the need to do so, either very often or often.
“Our research proves there’s a real need for American smartphone users to have more control over the privacy of their most intimate and personal information,” said Sheng Fu, CEO of KS Mobile. “While Americans might not consider smartphone maintenance or safety a priority, those who are interacting with mobile devices so personally need a protection and performance tool that is easy to use, effective, and accessible. Clean Master is uniquely designed to meet these needs.”
To empower smartphone users to more easily and effectively control their device and the personal information that resides on it, Clean Master today launched the new 4.0 version of its free app for Android at Google Play.
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by TNS on behalf of KS Mobile from October 17-21, 2013 among 1,000 adults 18 years and older. For complete survey methodology, including raw data and weighting variables, please contact Jessica Nelson at Grayling at Jessica.nelson@grayling.com.
About KS Mobile
KS Mobile provides a free cache cleaning application called Clean Master, which has over 30 million downloads on Google Play. Clean Master is also one of the highest rated free utility apps with a 4.8 rating (out of 5) from over one million reviews.