I search, therefore I am. That was the rude lesson AOL subscribers learned last month when the Internet giant thoughtlessly released reams of data on searches that its users conducted. Sure, the users" identities were removed, but as people quickly figured out, you can tell a lot about who somebody is by looking at what they"re looking for.
Now it turns out that those Blackberries and smart phones we drag around with us are talking, too. Mobile device security company Trust Digital reported last month that used smartphones and PDAs for sale on eBay can reveal reams of information — 27,000 pages, to be exact — about their former owners.
The company purchased 10 mobile devices from eBay and salvaged data, including personal banking and tax information, corporate client records, product road maps, computer passwords, and contact address books, the company said in a statement.