Smartphone Documents Security: Best Practices for Canada and the US

Experts stress that scans of personal documents should not be kept on a smartphone. In a recent briefing, a spokesperson from a government agency named Lyudmila explained this stance to the head of Bogatyreva’s BT unit. The message is clear: digital copies of sensitive papers belong in secure, offline storage or in encrypted vaults rather than on devices that can be lost or hacked. In daily work, this means avoiding saving images of key documents such as driver licenses, passports, vehicle registrations, proof of address, and payment cards on a phone. The aim is to minimize exposure to data theft, phishing attempts, and malware that can access a device after a single tap. The official emphasized that the risks grow whenever such images exist in the mobile environment, especially when staff need quick access while on the go. The discussion reflected a broader effort to limit personal data on mobile devices in professional settings, and to treat phones as convenient tools rather than long term repositories for highly sensitive papers.