Accessing the Internet from a mobile phone can expose the personal identification of the web surfer, according to a report in the newspaper Keskisuomalainen.
It is relatively easy for web site owners to identify the number of mobile phones from which their pages are visited. On the basis of the number from which a webpage is accessed, Internet service providers can pinpoint personal data such as the name, age, profession and home address of anyone visiting a page via mobile phone.
Simply with the phone number, it is possible to purchase data from registries which also include, for example, gender and shopping preferences.
The Jyväskylä-based Keskisuomalainen reports that Finnish companies have developed a system to automatically log the numbers of mobile phone web visitors.
An internet security expert told the paper that even unlisted numbers are at risk. Also, there is no way that a user can know if his or her number has been recorded or not.