First identified in 2008, it would appear nomophobia –
the fear of being out of mobile phone contact, is sharply
increasing in the UK. A recent survey of 1,000 people in
employment, conducted using OnePoll, discovered two
thirds of respondents fear losing or being without their
mobile phone. The study, sponsored by SecurEnvoy – the
global leader of tokenless two-factor authentication,
reveals that 41% of people interviewed, in an effort to stay
connected, have two phones or more. When asked if they’d
be upset if a partner looked at the messages and texts on
their phone almost half said that they would.
Digging a little deeper, more women worry about
losing their phones than men - 70% of the women
surveyed compared to 61% of the men, yet it is men that
are more likely to have two phones - scoring 47% and 36%
respectively, perhaps in an effort to stay connected.
When split by age it is the younger age group (18 –
24) that are more nomophobic at 77%, with the 25 – 34
age group second at 68%. Perhaps a little more
surprisingly is that third most nomophobic are the 55 and
overs!
“The first study into nomophobia, conducted four
years ago, revealed that 53% of
people suffered from the condition
and our study reveals this has now
risen to 66% in the UK and shows no
sign of abating. A reversal on the
2008 findings is that, back then, it
was men that were more afflicted yet
today it’s women. I’d be inclined to
draw the conclusion that, perhaps
because more men have two phones, they’re less likely to
misplace both and therefore be left phone-less,” said Andy
Kemshall SecurEnvoy CTO and co founder. “There is another
study into mobile phone use that found people check their
phones, on average, 34 times a day so it wouldn’t take long
for you to realise if you’d misplaced your device.”
Another interesting revelation from this study is that,
with 49% of people getting upset if their messages and texts
were viewed by a partner, they’re still lax at securing these
devices. Forty-six percent do not use any protection at all;
41% use a four pin access code; and just 10% encrypt their
device. A security conscious 3% use two factor
authentication. Andy suggests, “With 58% of the
respondents using at least one device for business use, this
lack of security is a worrying trend that needs addressing.”
“What this study does highlight though,” concludes
Kemshall “is the extent that people now rely on their mobile
phones. At SecurEnvoy we have certainly seen a huge spike
in demand from local government and the private sector
looking to turn their staff’s phones into security devices,
where they can use SMS tokenless®two factor authentication
to access data securely and easily whilst on the move.”