Smartphone sharing with intimate partners in Australia: Characteristics and implications for cybersecurity

This article reports findings from the first study to investigate smartphone sharing in intimate relationships in Australia. Efforts to strengthen cybersecurity have been hindered by a lack of knowledge about the prevalence and dynamics of smartphone sharing, resulting in blind spots in cybersecurity design and policy. Based on a survey of 967 Australian adults who use smartphones and have been in an intimate relationship, we found that 70% share access to their mobile phones with their intimate partners. This high rate of shared access indicates that one-user, one-device threat models are inadequate for promoting cybersecurity in realistic use conditions. Such models are particularly ill-suited to intimate relationship contexts where the parties are more likely to share devices than not. Our findings provide previously unavailable baseline information about mainstream smartphone-sharing practices. This evidence can be used to improve privacy protections for telecommunications users in Australia and elsewhere.