cell phones

More than half (54 percent) of second-hand mobile phones contain personal data belonging to the original owner, says CPP.

From snake phones to handsets that look like hockey pucks, these hopelessly impractical devices are the coolest-looking phones you'll never want to own.

You don't know what you've got until it's gone, they say--and they might very well have been talking about my cell phone. A couple of months ago, while walking through the departures terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, I reached into my coat pocket to grab my Motorola Droid--and panicked. Where I had expected to feel the cool metal case of my most trusted travel companion, my fingers reported only pocket lint and a couple of crumpled business cards. My phone had gone missing, and with it the security of my contacts, my banking information, my entire e-mail history, and my Facebook and Twitter logins--and I didn't even have a passcode on the phone.

Cell phone users plagued by hefty overage charges can rest easy -- help is on the way, at least in a few years.