Since the arrival of the smartphone, the amount of information mobile users share through their handsets has increased considerably. This has led experts within this industry to call for better privacy protection in general. However, it is still not clear who should be in charge of this process.

Todd Moore, founder of app vendor TMSoft, commented recently on mobile app privacy at the State of the Mobile Net conference in Washington. Moore admitted that companies such as Apple and Google have several good privacy protection policies in place, yet believes they could do more to improve things.

“The operators of the iPhone and Android app marketplaces are in the best position to enforce privacy controls and set rules limiting the amount of information apps can collect,” he stressed.

Independent security and privacy researcher, Ashkan Soltani, added fuel to the fire by arguing that app developers bear most of the responsibility for protecting privacy. He said that app developers “must embrace a set of standard privacy practices going forward” to improve the situation.

As an example case, he mentioned the iPhone app Girls Around Me, which was voluntarily withdrawn recently by app maker SMS Services due to its dubious privacy policy. Using location on Foursquare, Girls Around Me alerted its users to nearby women, or men.

Commenting on this specific app, Sarah Hudgins – public policy director at the Interactive Advertising Bureau – said it was “a 10 creepy” on a scale of one to ten.

Security first

Guaranteeing confidentiality and privacy protection is essential amongst the frequent exchange of data in business today.

Esendex understands that the provision of a secure, robust and high performance SMS service is crucial to the business operations of our customers and our continued success. For more information please visit our security and reliability and privacy policy webpages.

This week we had Yasser from Finance talking about fraudulent purchases, and the efforts we go to, to crack down on this and reduce it as much as possible without compromising genuine customers’ experiences.

Paul Spencer from Sales, talked about out latest big customer win; how each team played a part in making sure the customer would be satisfied with our service.

Jason from development went into some detail on how we are utilising the cloud to cut costs, increase system capacity and improve our service.

Paul Smith and Jeremy Bourhis talked about the positive feedback we receive from our customers, and how we went about establishing this service.

And finally, Lee from Operations explained how he and others were able to improve the speed of bulk sends, making them go out even quicker than before.

Everyone felt these talks were of worth and we have decided to continue to run them on a monthly basis.

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A mobile hacker could possibly remotely listen to your calls, read your text messages, take pictures with your phone’s camera, follow your internet browsing activity and keystrokes, pinpoint your geographical location and even access your passwords in some very extreme cases.

With this in mind what are 5 top tips to prevent mobile hacking?

1. Set a screenlock pattern or pin on your mobile – If your mobile phone is lost or stolen then a password will instantly stop a hacker picking it up and using it.
2. As mobile phones are becoming increasingly similar to computers, perhaps we should start treating them as such to avoid hackers. Make sure you download an anti-virus app like Lookout, Norton or AVG which is even free to download.
3. Only buy apps from a well-known vendor like Google , Apple, facebook and Twitter. Hackers can embed malicious software into an app which allows them to corrupt your phone’s internal system and steal important data.
4. Avoid unofficial versions of popular apps because they often have malware hidden in the code.
5. If you suspect your phone is being hacked you could pull out the phone’s battery to stop the flow of data. However if you know which app is behaving badly try and remove it, if this is not possible you could factory reset your phone (warning this will remove all your data and photos, but is the only way to ensure your phone is clean).

In an interview published in mobiThinking, General Manager of Asian operations Alex Burke and Chief Operations Officer Alex Hall spoke widely about the mobile marketing potential that Australia has by providing data and forecasting the future of this growing sector.

In the last few months, Australia’s mobile market has grown enormously. Right now, the country has mobile penetration of 11% and enjoys good 3G coverage overall. According to the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, News Digital Media are seeing their mobile sites grow at 89% per year.

For the mobile expert, the right development of the mobile web in Australia is narrowly linked to three requisites; 3G infrastructure, carrier pricing models and consumer propensity to adopt new technology.

“Consumers are changing their lifestyle habits, consuming content in different ways. As it becomes habit for people to use their phones to get content, demand for mobile Web services increases. This makes sense as the heavy users of their news, sport, weather and mapping services online are likely to be technology-savvy, and will want to access them on the mobile phone as well,” said Hall and Burke.

In the opinion of both Hall and Burke, although there’s a strong case to be made for almost every brand to use mobile marketing, those that solely target younger males are “missing out the most, by not getting involved.”

Mobile marketing – A potential market

Hall and Burke also suggest that companies such as Toyota, Nike, Coca-Cola and Fosters are examples of innovators within the industry. These firms hit the right target by utilising all the delivery methods at their disposal, such as SMS messaging, MMS, Bluetooth, WAP or QR codes.

However, Hall and Burke also feel that there is a unique reason which makes Australia a location with so much potential when it comes to developing mobile marketing?

“One key advantage is the adventurous nature of Australians – the willingness to give new things a go. This is critical for a new medium like mobile, as growth stems from both the brand’s willingness to innovate with mobile marketing and consumer acceptance of the new channel. Due to the size of the market, Australia is a great test bed to gauge likely success of mobile campaigns in other larger markets.”

One of the main reported findings concerns an explosion of the market for smartphones costing less than $100. According to the predictions, over 500 Million of them will be in use before the end of 2012. These figures are based on the consumer definition of a smartphone, rather than the technical one. Studies reveal that users are likely to call a mobile phone a “smartphone” device if it comes equipped with a touch screen or a full keypad, as opposed to categorising the phones according to their operating system.

Deloitte expects 300 million of these lower-priced smartphones to be sold in 2012, representing up to 20% of the entire mobile phone business. They cover the same market segment as netbooks, targeting users who require internet access without needing the graphics and range of functions offered by traditional laptop computers.

$100 Smartphones are likely to be particularly attractive in emerging markets. They generally support e-mail and messaging, feature a camera of at least 2MP and come with a selection of pre-loaded applications and widgets.

NFC (near field communications) enabled devices are also going to conquer a large share of the market. Up to 200 million of them could be sold in 2012, and the figure is likely to climb further in 2013. NFC is particularly valued for the distance payment possibilities it offers, and it opens up the door for the concept of “digital wallet” to develop.

Unsurprisingly, the global demand for consumer technology will increase this year. People rarely deliberately quantify value for money at the time of purchase, but they generally are conscious of how much a mobile device will be used.

Based on this criteria, consumer technology fairs particularly well: a $500 tablet will be used 350-700 hours a year, meaning the hourly cost of use can be evaluated as low as $0.70… against approximately $10 for a car! For mobile phones, the cost is even lower. With approximately 200,000 text messages being sent every second in the world, consumers are getting an excellent return on investment.

1. Spam emails are being delivered across both personal and work email networks on an increasingly regular basis. Research has shown that 90% of all emails are spam compared with 1% of text messages (Mobile Marketing Association 2009). Many people also find that important emails sometimes slip through the net and end up in their junk folder. As a result, many businesses are turning to SMS messaging to avoid being filtered out as junk and to send and receive important messages more effectively.
2. SMS is more widely read than email, 22% of all emails are opened compared to 98% of text messages (Frost & Sullivan 2010).
3. Emails are perceived as being free when they’re not, when sending from email marketing platforms, they cost a similar price to SMS messages. However when you take into account how many emails are actually opened; they are considerably more expensive than SMS.
4. We’re all attached to our mobile phones, most of the time.  SMS there enables you to reach the right person at the right time with the right message, all at low cost.
5. SMS messaging is the most used data service in the world, with most people on the planet sending text messages. There are more people sending SMS than the number of people who use Facebook or Google, and those who send and receive emails.

If you’re thinking about sending SMS take a look at our business SMS and the law document. This will guide you through the responsibility for sending SMS, to ensure they are not considered as spam.

A new bushfire alert system called ‘Bushfire Connect’ aims to combine different ways of communication, including social media and SMS, with official data in order to provide people local and detailed information about summer bushfires.

Every communication system will have its role: SMS alerts to a specific hotline, direct messages to the service’s social media Facebook page, or tweets hash tagged with the word #bushfireconnect.

A combination of methods

The combination of all these communication formats with official resources is designed to provide well-sourced information to their database regarding summer fires.

“It was shocking to know how little people knew at the critical point in time when they needed information,” commented Keren Flavell, co- founder of the system. Flavell added that the ability of social media to spread information had spurred the project.

On top of this, the Bushfire Connect website allows the general public to see wider reports or to sign up to receive more localised information – via SMS – which includes data from both authorities and from locals raising the alarm.

The website also includes incidents on the map and listed in chronological order. Those who want to know even more could find official mainstream news feeds on the site as well.

The system is inspired by the tragedy of Black Saturday, and it was successfully tested in Healesville earlier this year. Volunteers are invited to join the Bushfire Connect team and help communities share time critical information about bushfires.

Sending a quick and direct SMS is certainly one of the best ways to alert others about natural disasters.

According to Telstra research the first thing many of us do Christmas morning is send text messages of goodwill to family and friends – even before opening presents from under the tree.

Our Christmas habits are dominated by the power of texting, with mobile users across the globe expected to swap festive greetings in this way as the big day approaches.

If you’ve missed the Christmas post and not sent your Christmas cards yet then why not send an SMS instead – It’s cheaper, quicker and more likely to be read. Or if you’ve got staff working over the festive period or Christmas Day then why not send them a quick thank you.

The report states that 46% of marketers are doing more marketing via mobile and SMS, up from 34% in 2009. The survey shows enormous potential for mobile marketing in 2012.

The obstacles of mobile marketing continue to grow, QR codes have not become standard on mobile phones (and probably never will)  and then there are the low-reach technological innovations such as location-based “check-ins”, apps, mobile websites, mobile payments and more!  Most campaigns haven’t moved away from the simplicity of the text message.

With this in mind, what are the 12 best SMS campaign tactics to take into consideration for 2012?

1.  SMS Sender ID – By making it clear who the message is from, the receiver is aware that it is a legitimate message and can see this before they open the message.

2. Call to action – The text in your SMS that invites someone to respond.

3. SMS action plan – What will you do when you get a response? Send another SMS?

4. Personal context – Using a personal writing style such as “we” and “you”.

5. Know your Audience – By understanding your demographic you won’t offend. If you’re sending an SMS to the elderly don’t use modern day “text talk” or you could choose to send Voice SMS.

6. Personal significance – The receiver needs to be able to understand “why have you text my mobile phone?” As a rule of thumb, ensure the receiver is able to opt-out of your message.

7. SMS appeal – What’s in it for me? What’s in it for person who you are sending the message to?

8. Minimalism – Can your message be easily understood?

9. Hyperlink – Got a lot to say and texting smart phone users?  Then why not think about an integrated approach and include a hyperlink in your text, directing the receiver to a webpage. This is becoming increasingly more popular with the large number of smart phone users.

10. Viral content – Include a deal to encourage recipients to pass your SMS onto their friends and family – spread your SMS much further than your database list.

11.  Choose the right time to send – Not too early, not too late – If you’re targeting Saturday shoppers, ensure the message if received before they have started planning their day.

12. Choose the right SMS provider – Make sure that your SMS supplier delivers your messages quickly, so the messages are received when you want them to land. Do your research when choosing an SMS provider because some aggregators have message delays, making messages arrive in the middle of the night – causing annoyance.

Telstra, Optus and Virgin Mobile have all confirmed that data on their devices was safe.

A Telstra spokesperson told news.com that “We do not track customers’ phone usage other than for the purposes of connecting a call or billing for services.”

Similar statements were made by both Optus and Virgin Mobile.

The clarification comes following the revelation that Android based Smartphones, such as those produced by the likes of HTC and Samsung, may be running a ‘rootkit’ app that conceals its presence and can monitor user activity.

The discovery was made by Trevor Eckhart, an Android security researcher. In a youtube video he shows how an entire SMS message was recorded by the software developed by Carrier IQ’s app. The company claims that the app is nothing more than a ‘diagnostic tool,’ built to measure carrier and handset performance – but there are privacy concerns around the device because it could potentially be used to store user information.

Australian mobile companies are keen to stress that they do not hold any information on their customers. Text messages you send and text messages you receive – be it from friends or businesses – remain private and confidential.

It should also be noted that when it comes to receiving text messages from businesses, SMS providers are heavily regulated in Australia under a code developed by ACMA (The Australian Communications and Media Authority).