A percent of battery power for most of us means being in a “life and death” situation. That is because with the proliferation of smartphones and mobile devices, most of us if not all are dependent to these gadgets in performing even the simplest tasks like setting reminders and schedules or even making a list of things for grocery.

As an avid user of mobile phones, running out of battery while travelling or while hanging out with friends is inevitable. Therefore, I usually consider public charging stations as a “life saver.” But that was before I was informed that using these public charging stations could expose us to a risky situation. 

Probably out of the large number of users of these public charging stations, only a few are knowledgeable of the potential risk that it may bring to us consumers. Given that establishments don’t post warning signs and with the lack of research about these public domains, most of its users are perhaps unaware that it might steal our data and worse our identity in a matter of seconds upon connecting our devices to these charging stations via a USB cable that is able to sync data.

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Since nowadays identity theft is a serious problem, it is not surprising that establishments don’t post warning signs in these public charging stations since it might lessen the number of their customers thus the decreasing trend of their sales. However, that only benefits the management and not its customers, so for an establishment to provide good and trustworthy services, the management should consider putting the signs on. Although that is recommendable, the management may still opt to invest in power-only USB cables where it would benefit them as well as their customers. Since through using these cables, data will not be transmitted therefore the management doesn’t need to put on warning signs.

But whatever the management decides to do, as consumers, the responsibility of ensuring that our data are safe still should come from us. Therefore, it would be better to be more cautious when using these public charging stations like keeping your mobile devices locked to prevent hackers from stealing your data. And if possible, look for other alternatives like using power banks. It would be better to invest in power banks since its price would still equate to the accumulated 5 pesos you drop when you charge in these public domains. Power banks are more convenient for us than these public charging stations since compared to these domains, power banks are handy and are portable. So why not try investing in a device which will benefit you more and will not steal your data?

Overall, this situation entails that we have to be more careful when using public domains such as public charging stations since through using these, we are exposing ourselves, our identity and information to other people. Let us be more knowledgeable of things first before using it to be safe and to do away with scams and theft. Knowledge about devices can really get us through a lot since nowadays everything is built from technology and the chances of being scammed and hacked is relatively high. So as consumers let us be more vigilant and be observant of the things around us.