While cybersecurity self-help advice is readily available to consumers, most resources are focused on preventing unintended sharing of devices, passwords, accounts, and personal information. This advice is ill-suited to intimate relationship contexts where sharing is common. A lack of baseline knowledge about smartphone-sharing practices and the reasons behind them has hampered Australian efforts to strengthen consumer cybersecurity. This study created a new evidence base to understand everyday consumer smartphone sharing in intimate relationships to improve cybersecurity and technology design for all Australians. The study included a survey of 967 Australian adults and interviews with 10 diverse consumers to contextualise survey responses.

This study was made possible by funding from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN).​