If your phone runs out of juice while you're out-and-about it might be much safer (but a whole lot more frustrating, obviously) to wait until you can use your own charger to beef up your battery.
According to research from Kaspersky Lab, all kinds of information can be transferred from your phone when you charge it up. Such as the name of your device, the model, serial number and electronic chip ID. (But it'll all depend largely on the manufacturer and model of phone that you have.)
Sure the serial number of your phone getting into the wrong hands may not sound too important, but Kapersky Lab claims that those details might be all that some hackers need to break into your phone and get access to stuff that is really important.
If the public charging station hooks up directly to a power supply that's okay. But often there's no way of telling if there's hardware installed at the other end. And if there is hardware at the other end, the research team has proved that you can install a "root application" on a dummy smartphone, which then compromised the device.
So what do you do if you're on-the-move and really need to charge up your device? Well, if you're using iOS and the 'Trust this computer?' warning pops up, hit 'Don't trust' to just charge and not share anything. And don't unlock your phone when it's charging. Most Android devices have similar settings, so if you plug your phone in and you're asked what to share, always opt for 'Charging Only'.
Source: Express UK
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