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Smartphones and Privacy

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Abstract

Smartphones are the most prevalent portable social networking devices. Worldwide smartphone sales soared to 491.4 million units in 2011 alone. There are 1.2 billion active mobile web users in the world. By September 2011, 82.2 million Americans own smartphones, 70 % of which are either iPhones or Android phones. 64.2 million U.S. smartphone users accessed social networking sites or blogs on their mobile devices at least once in December 2011. March 2012 marked the tipping point when a majority (50.4 %) of U.S. mobile subscribers owned smartphones.

We’re as surprised as anybody to see all that information flowing. It raises a lot of questions for the industry—and not [only] for Carrier IQ.

—Carrier IQ’s Andrew Coward (December 2011)

[Mobile World Congress] really should be held in Geneva, close to where Mary Shelley created Frankenstein. With our increasing addiction to our mobile phones, we are in danger of creating a monster.

—Social critic Andrew Keen (February 2012)

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Lee, N. (2013). Smartphones and Privacy. In: Facebook Nation. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5308-6_3

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