While you might think your smartphones habits are private, a new study may urge you to think twice about which websites you visit.
Researchers have discovered that watching mobile porn on your smartphone puts you at much higher risk of having your data leaked than watching it on your PC.
The team hopes their findings will urge users to be more wary about watching adult content on their smartphones.
Researchers have discovered that watching mobile porn on your smartphone puts you at much higher risk of having your data leaked than watching it on your PC (stock image)
Researchers from Wandera, a London-based mobile phone consultancy, looked at the websites that are most likely to contain malware, and found that the adult apps were also the most likely to have malicious bugs.
In a blog about the study, Liana La Porta, editor at Wandera, wrote: ‘Smartphone operating systems, especially Android, are not as secure as desktops, there are many vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited by hackers.’
Gambling, cam, adult and ad networks were found to be by far the biggest risks for mobile users.
The researchers looked at the content viewed on 10,000 mobile devices across the US and UK.
Ms La Porta said: ‘We discovered 34 out of every 10,000 devices are accessing inappropriate content on a daily basis.’
A further analysis of the results showed that inappropriate mobile activity was highest on Fridays, followed by Thursdays, while Monday was the least popular day for inappropriate mobile activity.
The study revealed that gambling, cam, adult and ad networks were by far the biggest risks for mobile users
In terms of time of day, inappropriate usage was also found to increase from 8pm, peaking at around 2-3am, and remaining low throughout the working day.
The researchers warn that watching inappropriate content on mobiles also leaves people more vulnerable to having their data leaked.
Ms La Porta said: ‘Adult, extreme and illegal content categories are far more likely to leak data, employ unencrypted technologies and otherwise expose organizations to risk.’
A further analysis of the results showed that inappropriate mobile activity was highest on Fridays, followed by Thursdays, while Monday was the least popular day for inappropriate mobile activity
In terms of time of day, inappropriate usage was also found to increase from 8pm, peaking at around 2-3am, and remaining low throughout the working day
The warning comes just months after the details of 180,000 users of a porn site that posts ‘upskirt’ photos were leaked.
Personal details belonging to users of The Candid Board were uploaded to the internet after a security breach, along with details of their time of last login.
Among the details were 68 military accounts and 19 government email addresses, suggesting that UK civil servants had been visiting the porn site.