At some point in the last five years, we, as a culture decided that it was vitally important to pack hundreds of dollars worth of high-end computing equipment into tiny boxes in our pockets. The smartphone revolution has had a lot of consequences (mostly good) – but one consequence that people rarely consider (until it’s too late) is the risk of theft. Smartphones, which can be stolen, wiped, and easily re-sold on Ebay for hundreds of dollars are tempting targets for thieves. If you live in a high-crime area, or are considering traveling out of the country, it may be worthwhile to invest in a high-quality anti-theft app to keep your investment safe.
Where’s my droid?
Where’sMyDroid is a pure remote-location app, which is useful whether your phone has been stolen, left behind, or simply misplaced. You can send a code to the app which forces it to ring, even if your phone is in silent mode. A different code causes the app to turn on your device’s GPS and send its coordinates to you. You can even remote-control your phone with the ‘commandeer’ option, allowing you to backup and erase sensitive data before it can be misused.
Plan B
Let’s say you’re not so forward thinking: your phone is gone and you didn’t put an anti-theft app on it. Now, you’re completely out of luck, right?
Wrong! Plan B is a brilliant app which allows you to install it remotely, and access bare-boned location tracking information, which’ll be sent to you via email, and continue updating every ten minutes until the battery dies.
Android Lost Free
This android security app is intended to inconvenience a thief, hopefully attracting enough attention to get your phone recovered. When the app is remotely activated, it causes the screen to flash and an alarm to ring. It also enables GPS and phones home its location and recent call list, and wipes your SD card to protect your private information.
Seek Droid Lite
Most of the apps on this list won’t work if the thief takes the prudent approach and removes the SIM card from the phone immediately. Fortunately, Seek Droid Lite offers similar functionality to other apps on this list (remote lock and wipe, remote alarm, GPS tracking, recent call list), even after the SIM card has been removed. For the paranoid, this app can help to provide a little extra peace of mind.
Cerberus
Cerberus innovates upon the standard stable of features for these sorts of apps by adding the ability to record audio from the microphone, expanding the portfolio of evidence you can deliver to the police. The app allows you to install it on up to five devices, allowing you to protect the phones of everyone in your family – just don’t give anyone snoopy the password.
Lookout Security and Antivirus
This application allows you to locate our device on google maps, force the phone to ring, and remotely lock it. Better, the phone keeps track of the position of your phone continuously, so, even if the battery has been removed (or run down) by the time you activate the app, you can still see its last known location from the web interface.
With so many great, free apps on the market, there’s no excuse not to protect your Android device.
Aaron Mills is a blogger who writes on behalf of companies such as Protectyourbubble.com ID theft provider.