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topicnews · October 12, 2024

Android: This is how Google’s new theft protection works – it immediately detects thieves and locks the smartphone

Android: This is how Google’s new theft protection works – it immediately detects thieves and locks the smartphone


Android

Google has rolled out an extensive Anti-theft protection for Android started, which is intended to make life difficult for thieves with a series of sophisticated functions and to give users a certain form of security. The new theft protection package is based on three core functions, which we will introduce to you in detail in this article. Hopefully you will never need these.


Android: This is how Google’s new theft protection works – it immediately detects thieves and locks the smartphone

Smartphone theft is certainly a crime that is not uncommon and causes major problems for those affected – even beyond the purely material loss. Pure theft can hardly be prevented, but Google is now introducing a whole new batch of new ones Anti-theft features for Androidwhich make the whole thing so unattractive that the numbers could decline sharply in the near future. Because the device becomes practically worthless for thieves.

Google is introducing three new features that were first announced a few months ago and are currently being rolled out to many users. All three intertwine and are intended to ensure that the user’s data on the device is protected, that the thieves only receive worthless loot and that, with a bit of luck, the smartphone can be tracked down again. In the best case scenario, the smartphone will be returned relatively intact and will not have suffered any damage.

Basically, the new system is based on the following three pillars, which are available to all users from Android 10 onwards.

These are the new anti-theft features

  • Intelligent theft detection
  • Automatic offline lock
  • Lock your smartphone remotely

Android anti-theft protection 2

Automatic theft protection
The first and most important function is based purely on movement data and artificial intelligence: based on the movement pattern, the smartphone noticed that it had just been torn out of your hand. If “movements typical of theft” are detected, the smartphone automatically locks itself so that it can no longer be used within a few seconds. This ensures immediate protection of the data and the device. And if the algorithm is wrong, then as the legitimate owner she could simply unlock the device, so nothing would happen.

Android anti-theft protection 4

Offline lock
There is also an offline lock. This ensures that the smartphone display is automatically locked as soon as the thieves try to deactivate the online connection. This is intended to ensure that the smartphone cannot simply be removed from the network and then continued to be used.

Android anti-theft protection 3

Lock remotely
If the automatic locks are not used, you can lock your smartphone at any time from another device. For this recently introduced remote lock, all you need is your device’s phone number. With the “Lock for remote access” function, you can lock the display, back up your data and even reset the smartphone if necessary.

android anti theft protection

In addition to these new options, Google also ensures that the smartphone can hardly or not be resold through reset protection. If a stolen device is factory reset, it cannot be set up again without re-entering the original Google account password. The lock still applies even if the device has been reset.

And last but not least, there is of course “Find my device”, which you can use to track down your smartphone again in order to catch the thieves or at least get the smartphone. Because as soon as the thief realizes that the device is useless, he will probably want to lose it quickly. If you’re a little lucky and the thieves aren’t too aggressive, the smartphone could be found intact.

All of these are defensive functions to protect against smartphone theft. We will be curious to see whether active protection could one day be offered if detection is sufficiently good. If the smartphone recognizes it without a doubt anyway, then why not play an alarm signal at maximum volume, for example to make it more difficult for the thief to escape and, on the other hand, to drive them crazy by not being able to switch it off 🙂

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