Hot Take How-To Geek: How to Prepare Your Android Phone to Be Stolen

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

You’d probably be nervous walking around with $1,000 in your pocket, but that’s what many of us do every day with smartphones. It’s a good idea to be prepared if someone decides your Android phone is ripe for stealing.

Being prepared for your phone to be stolen is the key. There’s not much you can do after the device is gone. Taking some time to be ready for an unfortunate situation can make it hurt a lot less. We’ll give you some tips:

Set Up a Screen Lock
Make Sure “Find My Device” Works
Back Up Important Things
Create a Second Line of Defense
Record Your Device’s IMEI Number

When it comes to losing or having things stolen, there’s always more you can do before it happens. Android phones are certainly no different. Take some time now to prepare for a disaster. You’ll be glad you did.

How to Prepare Your Android Phone to Be Stolen

It could happen to anyone. Be ready.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[silversurfer]

A new Find My Device experience​

Currently, Find My Device helps you locate misplaced devices that have location capabilities and are connected to the internet — but we know that keeping track of every device in your life is getting more complicated. We’ve heard from you that being able to locate devices that are offline or that don’t have location capabilities would make keeping track of your devices more seamless. That’s why later this summer, we're launching a refreshed Find My Device experience that makes it easier than ever to locate your devices and belongings quickly and securely by ringing compatible devices or viewing their location on a map in the app – even when they’re offline. The new Find My Device network will harness over a billion Android devices across the world to help you locate your missing belongings like headphones, tracker tags, or even your phone via Bluetooth proximity.

Attach Bluetooth trackers from Tile, Chipolo, and Pebblebee to your everyday objects — like your keys, wallets, or luggage to make them findable via the Find My Device network. And keep your ears open for updates to your existing Pixel Buds, as well as headphones from Sony and JBL, that will join the Find My Device ecosystem soon.

Most importantly, the Find My Device network was built with user privacy as a key priority. Location data crowdsourced from the network is end-to-end encrypted, which ensures Google can’t see or use it for any other purposes. We will be sharing more about all the privacy safeguards we’ve built into the Find My Device network to prioritize user safety ahead of our feature launch.

How Android keeps you and your devices safe

At I/O 2023, Google shares the latest ways Android keeps you and your devices safe.

www.blog.google

 

[HarborFront]

Enable SIM lock.........good for phone having SIM cards.

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

On iOS devices,
Disable 'allow' account changes using a Screen Time PIN(hint: different from device PIN). Stops thieves changing your iCloud settings to take control of your device and disabling 'Find My Device' and 'Remote Lock'.
As HarborFront say's, enable SIM lock.
Use a 'complex' PIN to unlock your device.
Enable 'Delete All Files' after 10 failed attempts to unlock your device.

 

[HarborFront]

Bitdefender Mobile Security has the following Anti-Theft features

1) Set a PIN to prevent unauthorized changes to Bitdefender settings
2) Remote Commands to locate, lock, wipe or send an alert to your devices
3) Scream - to trigger an alert on your devices to detect its location
4) Snap photo on failed unlock after 3 failed attempts