How can you save your smartphones from thieves? Or even if somehow your phone ends up getting stolen how can you protect your personal information from them? Here are five ways you should adopt to protect your data and prevent your smartphones from getting stolen.
Make your phone hard to get, even for you
The easiest place to carry a phone is in your pocket, better yet a jacket pocket, but that's also the place a thief will look first. I've known several industry insiders and journalists who've had cell phones stolen from their pockets, purses, and backpacks, either quietly or as part of a crafty and elaborate plan to distract them.
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| Make your phone hard to get, even for you |
My last major piece of advice is to get into the habit of keeping phones you aren't holding as hard to extract from your person as possible, like the inside pocket of a jacket, the interior pocket of a purse (with the purse clasped or zipped and with your arm blocking the zipper,) and so on. The goal, once again, is to make yourself too much work for a thief.
Switch on tracker applications
The same GPS and network connections that help your phone find the best nearby restaurants and the fastest way home can help you find and protect the phone if it goes missing. To take advantage of this, you need to install a special free app that we’ll describe below, which works together with a free service that you can use to locate or erase the phone once it’s gone.
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Keep your phone from getting stolen |
Activate or install an application on your smartphone which can track your phone's location if stolen. This could help police if it's stolen. Some phones have this feature built in.
Back up your photos and videos
Phone carriers, phone makers, and operating systems typically offer free over-the-air backup for phone camera content, settings, and more. These options often appear when you set up the phone for the first time, though you can always activate them later. Selecting a carrier-neutral source, such as Apple's iCloud, Android's Google +, or Microsoft's OneDrive will make it easier to retrieve your precious memories should your next phone be from a different carrier.
Use a strong screen lock
This is your first and strongest line of defense. Skip the easy four-digit PIN and instead create a strong password that contains a string of at least eight characters that include some combination of letters, numbers, and special characters that do not form recognizable words or phrases—especially those that could be associated with you. For instance, Fred1969 is a weak password, but F!ed9691 could be much harder to crack. While typing a nontrivial password may feel cumbersome at first, it should get much easier with practice.
Solid Grip
Grip the phone securely in your hand, fanning out your fingers so that you've formed a protective cage or claw around the phone. Better yet, weave fingers from both hands around the device, so that they're touching. This is especially beneficial for larger phones that are harder to hold onto and therefore easier to snatch. It may sound strained, but for me this winds up being a natural way to grip a phone, one that happens almost instinctively.
Someone could still grab your phone from you, yes, but you've now created a deterrent and the appearance of physically locking on to your device, even if you are completely absorbed in what's happening on the screen, and oblivious to your surroundings.
