The private data that you carry around on your mobile phone can be very valuable also because today's smartphones, iPhone or Android, are connected to various Internet accounts Google, Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook, MSN and so on. If the smartphone is lost and if it is stolen, one must be careful that all these login data are not at the fingertips of strangers who could use them in illegal ways and create a lot of damage, including economic ones (see Paypal applications to pay by mobile)
Anti-theft applications for mobile phones and smartphones are necessary to block mobile phones with an SMS and prevent them from being used to access various data, messages, address books and web accounts.
On Android smartphones you can do even more, you can track a cell phone, know where it is and control it remotely via SMS or via the internet .
There are three excellent free applications that allow you to control an Android phone remotely from your PC .
1) Without installing applications or programs, with the internal system function Find My Android .
The guide on how to use this function is in another article which explains how to remotely ring, locate, block or delete cell phone data.
2) CM Security has a function of locating the lost or stolen phone similar to that of device management, only a little more refined and elaborate, with the snapshot of the photo of someone trying to guess the password.
3) AndroidLost is a free application for Android phones which, in combination with a web interface, allows you to find or block a phone if it is lost or stolen .
- Read the SMS of the phone, send them to your EMail and delete them;
- Launch an audible alarm on the mobile phone even if it was put in silent mode;
- locate the phone on the geographical map and always know where it is, using GPS, the internet or telephone cells;
- Send SMS from PC (replies will be sent to the phone);
- Block your mobile phone via the internet or via SMS;
- Delete messages and clean up the smartphone memory, including the precious Google account and the address book and also including the SD card that can be completely deleted.
- Send pop-up messages on the screen on the mobile phone (hoping that those who find it can read it and know who to return it to);
- Forward calls and divert calls to another mobile phone.
AndroidLost is a rather particular application because what is installed on the phone is only a receiver, without any graphic interface.
Androidlost is linked to the Google account registered on the phone and allows you to control your smartphone from the internet, from the Androidlost.com website.
The commands can also be sent via SMS so, even if not connected to the internet, the mobile phone can be located or rendered unusable.
The application is in beta but it works really well, in a silent way, without cluttering the phone and without being noticed.
4) A third free application that works as an anti-theft device for Android phones is Lookout, a complete mobile security application .
Lookout allows you to locate the lost phone, to lock it, to delete all data, even if the battery is discharged, remotely, from your PC.
Lookout is currently the best anti-theft device for Android.
5) Cerberus, excellent for monitoring a mobile phone, is one of the best anti-theft apps ever, which allows you to locate your lost Android phone with a lot of powerful functions.
The application has all the functions of a mobile anti-theft device: intrusion alarm, SMS control, SIM change alarm, photographing the thief using the front camera, audio recording from the microphone, viewing the last calls made and much more.
It allows you to remotely control the device, locate it using GPS, GSM cell or Wi-Fi and showing the position on Google Maps.
6) Among the other applications already listed in another article to find the stolen or lost mobile phone, we cannot forget:
- Wheres my Droid to monitor the status of the device, where it is located, block it with an SMS and control it remotely.
- Plan B which can also be installed remotely after it has been lost or stolen.
- Prey, the number one anti-theft app for pc and mobile phones.
Refer to another article to manage an Android phone from the PC via a web browser .
