All financial information on my phone requires a a log-in and password. I'm betting plenty of other people who use passcodes also are required to specifically log-in to their bank accounts, etc.
Furthermore, if one were worried about financial records, I would assume they would password protect in the accounts themselves instead of through the phone. Which is more convenient, having the ability to access your bank statement without a password, something most people do once a day or less, or you access your phone without a password, which people do about 50 times a day?
So that addresses the financial information issue. So what else needs to be password protected? From who, and why?
I've lost one phone in my life, at an airport, and called Verizon and had them disable it. No other harm came from it. Another time I left my iphone at the gym inside a locker. I discovered this about 20 minutes after I left, and used the 'find my iphone' feature to remotely locate and lock the phone and then had the gym staff go fetch it and hold it for me. No harm came from it.
So, in 15 years of owning cell phones, I've lost track of them twice. No harm came either time. So is it really worth having enter a passcode 50 times a day to prevent the remote possibility of evil doers getting hold of your phone and successfully managing to somehow cause you harm?
Ameritrade does not require credentials to access your account. It can rely on your phone passcode instead of you having to enter your credentials. If a huge bank like TD does this, then I would guess that there are others that do the same thing.
The reason for this is so that you can watch streaming quotes without having to login every time.
I'm sure that you can look at loss and theft records of phones and see that the numbers are huge.
I've never lost a device but I've found a number of phone lost by others. One was on a basketball court. Another in a McDonalds parking lot. Another outside a bathroom.
"About 3.1 million American consumers were victims of smart phone theft in 2013, Consumer Reports projects, based on our latest nationally representative survey of adult Internet users. That’s nearly double the number we previously projected had been stolen during 2012. The survey also projects that 1.4 million smart phones were lost and never recovered last year."
"Given how much personal information these devices contain—from photos, contacts, and e-mail accounts to social-networks, shopping, and banking apps—it's understandable that you'd freak out if either misfortune happened to you. Still, there are steps you can take on any phone to guard against thieves. Also check our video below for tips on smart phone theft prevention."
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...hefts-rose-to-3-1-million-last-year/index.htm
You might also have a smart home setup via your phone too you can open your front door or garage door with your smartphone or you might have a home security system which can monitor your house via video remotely on your phone.
You might store passwords and other account information on your phone.
iOS 8 allows you to take pictures of your credit card to store in a credit card vault and it will fill in credit card information for you in Safari transactions. The ****** App will also use your credit card vault to make transactions.
Not using a passcode on your phone is like leaving the front door of your house unlocked.
