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I'll be travelling to Mongolia, and I've heard there's a non-trivial chance of theft. I'll be taking two Apple iPhones with me, and I'm not too concerned about the theft of the devices themselves, as that's a bounded cost.

Do I need to take precautions against identity theft, and if so, what personally identifiable information should I delete from my smartphone and email before travelling?

The only personally identifiable information on my email and smartphone relate to me as an Australian - I have worked for a year in the US, but that was prior to me setting up the only email account set up on my phones, and buying my iPhones.

Related questions: Photocopies of important documents stolen (more about what to do after theft has occurred, not beforehand), and What harm can be done with a copy of one's passport? (specific to passports). Wikivoyage has a section on identity theft, but it's more or less only about passports.

Community
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Golden Cuy
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6 Answers6

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If you have a sufficiently modern iPhone (eg. anything that runs iOS 9 would be fine), then enable a passcode, set "Require Passcode" to "Immediately" (so you have to enter it every time you open the phone) or something short. The phone's memory is encrypted using a key derived from the passcode. No passcode, no personally identifiable data.

If you do this, then the chance of identity theft due to a stolen phone is effectively zero.

Greg Hewgill
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None, as long as you lock your phone with a password. It took the FBI several weeks of efforts to crack an iPhone belonging to the San Bernardino mass shooter, so a random low-level thief won't have the skills or tools to access your encrypted information.

I would worry more about information stolen on your laptop, although that also can be mitigated by encrypting your drive with VeraCrypt or a similar piece of software.

JonathanReez
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Unless you need that specific device, I would get a throw-away device to carry in questionable situations. You can get decent Android devices for under $100 US.

DTRT
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Most people that target identify theft are not looking at your cellular phone; they are looking at things that can be used to impersonate you - so your id card, passport, etc.

People stealing phones are looking at reselling them for a quick buck. So, if you put a passcode on your phone, it makes it less of a target for being sold on. iPhones in particular have robust security (as detailed by Greg).

I would not be worried about my identity being stolen via my phone.

Burhan Khalid
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Everyone has given good advice about the phone and that it will almost undoubtedly be safe if you put a password on it (rather than a short PIN). The only issue that I see is to ensure that access to your email service is encrypted. Almost all are these days, so it's only a concern if you access mail without using SSL.

You will see this under Advanced Settings in account setup where it should have "Use SSL" selected.

Berwyn
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The only other recommendation I have is to delete (uninstall/remove) any banking related apps on the phone before your travel, for 3 reasons:

  1. It is not too difficult to retrieve logs generated by apps installed on a phone and I wouldn't completely rely on the banks that they have secured their apps in all possible ways
  2. You are likely to access internet via public WiFi
  3. If for any reason you need the apps, you can always re-install them
Rocky Inde
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