this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
74 points (87.8% liked)
Privacy
32142 readers
927 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
A better option would be to use a good password generally and the built-in lost device functions like Find my iPhone, Google Find my Device or Samsung Find my Mobile.
If you're using Android, and want a separate app that can lock down your device outside of the built-in functionality, among a ton of other features:
I used to use Cerberus years ago for that security before that functionality was really built in. It is a side loaded app that allows remote tracking, lockdown, etc. and functions as a system app. They have a version of the apk that is listed as "System Framework" with a stock Android icon and as well to hide in the app listing. You can have it hide the app and access it via a dialer code as well for added security. When I used it, you could have it take photos to send to your email with location data for incorrect login attempts, send messages to the device to display while lost, etc. www.cerberusapp.com
Still no use if the SIM gets pulled, therefore losing connectivity and rendering any Find My Device app useless. Unless I'm missing something?
Of course nothing will work if the SIM is removed, no new SIM is inserted, and they don't connect it to Wi-Fi. But at that point, whoever has it also isn't using the device either are they?
There is no way to have a device know it is stolen and wiped without it being able to get that notification from somewhere.
If that device is connected back to the Internet though, all of the find my device services work just fine, and you can queue a wipe to wait for the device to be online again. None of them are reliant on your SIM or phone number, they all use the MEID/IMEI and your Apple/Google/Samsung/etc. account to manage it.