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Prepare to lose your device

RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers

Published: August 29, 2014

Somebody reading this column is going to lose/have stolen his/her smartphone/tablet.

Yes, you are.

You can prepare for this eventuality by making it difficult to get into the device, by backing it up and by tracking it.

First, always lock your device using a password. Yes, it’s a pain. Do it. Since most thieves steal devices to resell them and not to filch data, this will stop them from looking inside your device before they get started. Android devices can have a lock screen message, like “If found, please return to...”.

Next, always back everything up. Android devices do this through Google+, which is very easy to set up to automatically backup photos, music, data, etc. iOS devices do it on iCloud.

You want to download an app that will track your phone. There are a bunch of them, with varying rates of effectiveness.

Start with downloading the free Avast antivirus for portable devices. It has a web-based anti-theft tool that allows you to remotely locate, lock and wipe your device.

Apple devices have tracking already installed, including the Find My Phone service. Windows has the same service, with the same name (shock!).

Android does not have an integrated solution for this problem, so apps need to be installed.

For Android, Google Apps provides a service to track, remotely wipe, etc. a lost device.

Cerebrus and some other pay providers sell a tracking app that also can turn on the microphone and camera remotely if the device is stolen. GadgetTrack has a similar function for iPhones.

WheresMyDroid allows you to send a text with a pre-arranged code to turn on the GPS and ring the phone over and over at full volume. Cause if you can’t catch the thief, at least you can annoy him. Another Android solution is subscription service Prey, a cross-platform app that tracks the device, sends photos of the thief to you, has remote wipe,[ and more.

None of this is any guarantee that you’ll get the phone back. A thief can swap out the SIM card and negate most of these efforts, so, if your device is missing, time is of the essence to find it and wipe it out.


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