What Your Phone Says About You
Technology is giving up more information about our personal being that I ever thought it would. Now taking a swab of your phone can tell you almost everything.
Just like a computer keyboard, our smartphones are anything but clean, so researchers at UC San Diego decided to analyze the molecules on a handful of them and see what they could find out about the phone's owners. The result? They found out a whole lot.
They swabbed four sections on the phones of 39 participants as well as eight spots on each volunteer's right hand then compared the results to a database of molecules present in a wide range of medicines and commercial products.
It's almost disturbing what they were able to figure out. They knew who used things we might want to keep on the down-low, like Viagra, anti-fungal medication and a hair loss treatment.
Researcher Amina Bouslimani said, "We could tell if a person is likely female, uses high-end cosmetics, dyes her hair, drinks coffee, prefers beer over wine, likes spicy food, is being treated for depression, wears sunscreen and bug spray ... all kinds of things."
Beware and don't give up your info if you don't have to.