Lost smartphones can cause anxiety disorders

A new study has suggested that losing one's smartphone causes anxiety disorder in individuals as it represented potential privacy and security risk.

The researchers pointed out that the same anxieties applied equally to lost or stolen laptops, tablet computers and other digital devices.

Zhiling Tu, Yufei Yuan and Norm Archer of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, explained that the convenience of mobility, wireless communication and the information processing power of smart phones and other portable digital devices had led to more and more people carrying with them valuable data assets wherever they went.

The researchers found that a few active and security-conscious users were aware of countermeasures but many users were either not aware of "time bomb" data deletion settings and remote device locks or were simply in denial of the risk of their losing their phone.

The study is published in International Journal of Mobile Communications.