It was a shocking experience. I use the Navfree satellite navigation app, for example, and was able to easily uncover my "home" address--street name as well as latitude and longitude coordinates--as well as recently visited destinations. All of that was contained within simple text files on the iPhone. With similar ease, I was able to uncover my recent Yahoo Messenger conversations.

Remember: I was able to do all this by doing little more than plugging my iPhone into a computer via USB and installing easily available, entirely legal software. I could do the same with your iPhone, provided I have access to it for a moment or two.

In my cursory explorations I wasn't able to view e-mails, and this is probably because the iPhone incorporates , which encrypts e-mails and any attachments. Indeed, the iPhone has encryption built into the hardware along with an application programmer interface (API) allowing programmer access to this feature, allowing theoretically easy access for apps. However, it appears few make use of it.

My iPhone isn't jailbroken but I understand that even more data is freely accessible on such phones. I doubt many people consider this when choosing to jailbreak.

To be fair, iPhones set with a passcode are inaccessible to iTunes (and therefore iPhone Explorer) unless some first enters the passcode on the device. But how many people use this feature, which can make activating the phone for use each time a slightly annoying experience?