Thankfully, the Pew report is filled with promising news in that regard. Nearly six in ten smartphone owners regularly backup the contents of their device, half report clearing the browsing history, and a third say they have disabled location-tracking features. The important takeaway from the Pew study is that smartphone users seem to be much more aware of the risks and threats than they were in years past, and they appear to be more knowledgeable and proactive about protecting their smartphones and the data they contain.

For businesses that rely on smartphones, or allow employees to access company data or network resources , this should be obvious. Hopefully, it didnt take a Pew research study to alert you to the fact that smartphones hold more sensitive information than old-fashioned feature phones, and pose a greater security and privacy risk.

You should that govern what data is allowed to be stored on mobile devices, and you should have tools in place that enable you to protect the data from unauthorized access, and erase the data on those devices in the event that a smartphone or tablet gets lost or stolen.