Christmas time always brings out great presents(tech and otherwise) unfortunately it also brings out people trying to gain those presents that don’t belong to them and sometimes we just lose our new present(leave them in a taxi, restaurant, airplane). So lets talk about a two things we can do to protect them. 1) How to do a basic security measure with your android smartphone and 2) learn about some apps that exist that will help you protect your phone when it leaves your possession.
Change your Smartphone settings!
First and foremost, change your settings! By default your android phone comes with a simple swipe feature that allows you to swipe an icon to open it up.
We just want you to go to your lock screen page in your settings menu(settings->security->screen lock) and pick your option. The bottom 4 are the ones you should be picking from.
- Face Unlock- great tool, but more of a toy right now, you have to hold the phone just right, and doesnt consistently work.
- Pattern is nice, you identify a pattern on a 3×3 grid. It is a fun and more creative way to protect your phone from being accessed. Only trick to this one if you have a smart hacker of smartphones, they can see the smudge marks on the screen and guess your pattern
- PIN and Password- both are great and common solutions. They are something we are already use to with websites and debit cards and everything else we do in life. Pitfall on this one is our memory:)
Smartphone Apps
There are many smartphone apps available that will help you find your lost/stolen phone. These apps also have other functionality, like set of an alarm, wipe your phone clean, and take picture of the suspected thief. Each app has its own set of functionality and its own costs.
plan b is a great little tool that you can use once your phone is lost. You simply install this app onto your lost/stolen smartphone and it will help you find your phone. Once it is installed it will activate automatically and send your phones location to your gmail account, ten minutes later you can text(from someone else’s phone) and it will send location again.
The developers that created plan b also created an App called Lookout. a more robust app that does much more than geo locate your phone. It protects your phone from malware ,virus’s, and losing your phone. This is a free app to download but if you want full functionality like, remote wiping your phone, locking your phone and many other features, it will cost you 3/month. Depending on where you live and your propensity to lose your device, it might be worth the money.
Kaspersky is always ranked up there as one of the best Antivirus programs for your pc, they now have a version for you smartphone. Kaspersky Mobile Security is very similar to Lookout. It helps with antivirus and anti-theft. It also has call/sms filters where you can block unwanted numbers andother privacy filters. I would say there are 2 big differences between Lookout and Kaspersky and that is, 1) it is a 1 time fee of 15 dollars and 2) a proven name. Both seem to have similar functionality and promise time will tell which ones proves itself in the long run, but in the meantime I dont think you can go wrong either way.
There are many more apps out there I just picked 3 of the more popular ones, if you have one you like please tell me about!