Goin' Mobile - E-mail

A report from email specialist Return Path suggests that people are increasingly using mobile devices to access and open emails.
  Mobile's share of email opens has tripled in the last two years, while the use of desktop email clients has declined slightly.  Much of that growth seems to have come from a shift from the use of Webmail portals, and may be less of a shift in terms of when and where people access email, than a change in the devices used.  That is, Webmail portals offered mobile (non-fixed) access on desktops and laptops.  Smartphones and tablets now enable mobile access 24/7 through personal devices, both extending mobile access capacity with smaller and lighter personal devices.  Users away from their primary desktops may be shifting their preferred access point from Webmail to mobile devices.
  Still, email access habits vary across regions. In the U.S., 38% of all emails are opened on mobile devices, compared to 31% opened through a desktop email client, and 31% opened through a webmail portal.  In Brazil, France, Germany, and Spain, mobile's share of email opens falls below 20%; with Webmail portals being the dominant email access point.  The U.K. is seeing mobile usage rising to about one-quarter of email opens.
  The study also asked users about how frequently they accessed emails on various devices.  Looked at that way, more people report using desktop email clients on a daily basis than report using mobile devices to access emails daily.  While use patterns vary globally, more than 70% of users in indicate daily email access via desktop email clients, and more than 50% of mobile users indicate using their devices to access email daily.
   Apple devices dominate mobile email use, at least for now.  The study found that 59% of all mobile email opens occur on iPhones, while iPads account for 26%.  Android mobile devices currently account for 14% (with an occasional Windows user accounting for 0.3%).  The report indicates that this number may be somewhat skewed, as Apple automatically opens images when grabbing emails from host servers.
  There's some interesting results on use of emails from retailers in the infographic.

Sources - Consumers Favor Mobile for Email,  Online Media Daily
ReturnPath press release and infographic

Leahy's Email Privacy Bill does 180

Last May, Senator Pat Leahy (D, Vt.) introduced the "Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2011" (PDF), ostensibly to ensure that police and government agencies needed a search warrant to access private conversations and information about locations of mobile devices.  The bill was, in part, a response to arguments from Obama's Dept. of Justice that "warrantless tracking should be permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their, or at least their cell phones', previous locations."

As the bill nears its scheduled vote next week, its come out that the bill has been dramatically rewritten.  Rather than protecting privacy, the revised bill specifically allows more than 22 Federal agencies "to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant."  The revised bill would also expand the powers of the FBI and Homeland Security "to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge."

Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said requiring warrantless access to Americans' data "undercuts" the purpose of Leahy's original proposal. "We believe a warrant is the appropriate standard for any contents," he said. 

Leahy is said to have been pressured by groups representing police and district attorneys, as well as some strong politicking from the US. Justice Dept., to limit online privacy protections, or at least include major exemptions.  The revised bill does retain some protections from local and state police actions, but critics say it opens the floodgates for misuse at the Federal level.

Source -  Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants,  CNet News

Cybercrime enters Mobile, Social Markets

Symantic has released the findings of a 2012 report on cybercrime that shows significant increases in "malicious activity" in mobile and social networks.  The report suggests that cybercrime costs consumers more than $110 billion globally ($21 billion in the U.S.) and affects roughly 1.5 million consumers daily.

Mobile vulnerabilities have doubled from 2010 to 2011, which can make consumers leery of clicking on mobile ads. Symantec notes that 31% of mobile users have received a text message from someone they didn't know requesting they click on an embedded link or dial an unknown number to retrieve voice mail. Some 44% don't know security platforms exist, and two-thirds of adults have lost their device or had it stolen.
In social, four out of 10 users have fallen victim to cybercrime, one in six users report that someone hacked into their profile, and one in 10 social users have been affected by a scam or fake link on a social network platform.

The study is based on responses from more than 13,000 online adults in 24 countries.  Two thirds of this group reported that they had been victims of cybercrime, and 31% said they had received a text message from someone they didn't know with an embedded link or unknown phone number (to get a voicemail message).
  The report suggests that a major access point for mobile cybercrime is the use of free and unsecured WiFi, particularly to access emails.  WiFi signals are easily intercepted, and many free and public WiFi access points don't use encryption between users and the WiFi node.  This can give hackers and criminals access to your keystrokes (which may include account log-ins and passwords) if the users aren't going through a secure site. Two-thirds of respondents reported regularly using free public or unsecured WiFi. Among those using unsecured WiFi for access, 67% report accessing personal emails63% reported accessing social media accounts, 31% reported shopping online, and 24$ access their bank accounts.
  Symantic suggests making sure that you use secure transmissions and sites when providing personal information - including account names and numbers, log-in IDs, and passwords.  They also indicate that having strong passwords can be a strong deterrent.  While it's tough to prevent a determined hacker, the harder you make it (strong passwords, secure systems, etc.), the less chance they'll bother with you.

Sources -  Mobile Social Registers Rise in Cybercrime,  OnlineMediaDaily
Slides for 2012 Norton Cybercrime Report