Karl Poe

What will you do, when you phone gets stolen (or lost)?

A friend of mine has recently lost his phone. Someone found it and turned the device off right away. The thing he was worried about most was not the phone itself, but all the data like e-mails, phone numbers, kids’ photos, etc. It’s definitely not very pleasant knowing someone is going thought your personal stuff.

I decided not to wait till I loose my phone and started looking for different solutions of retrieving the phone and/or wiping the data remotely. I have T-Mobile G1, running Android OS and there are plenty of apps that can report phone’s GPS coordinates or wipe data remotely. However, most of those apps assume that whoever finds the phone will keep your SIM card in it.

Two apps that I decided to settle with are Remote Wipe and SIM Checker. First one allows you to wipe the phone and SD card by sending an SMS message - I’ve tried it, works like a charm. Of course, it’s worthless if whoever finds the phone, uses their own SIM. That’s where SIM Checker comes into play. It registers you SIM card and if a new one is inserted, it will turn on GPS and report phone’s location + new phone number via e-mail or SMS (or both).

Of course, this does not guarantee retrieval of the phone as the thief can simply wipe it, but if they do, at least you can be sure your data is safe.