Until a decade ago losing the mobile phone was mostly a disappointment, but after the initial disappointment we could take another immediately without thinking too much about the security of the data contained in the old one. Modern smartphones are in all respects mini computers and contain much more information than in the past: losing your smartphone today can be a huge problem, since we risk losing personal data generated by different applications such as Facebook, WhatSapp, Gmail and others. When we lose the smartphone then we will have, in addition to locking the phone and canceling the SIM card, reset the various accounts and prevent those who find it or who stole it from recovering this personal information .
In this complete guide we will show you all the procedures to follow in order to remotely "disconnect" all the most used personal accounts, so as to prevent someone from using them in our place.
READ ALSO: All the ways to track your phone (Android, iPhone)
Lost smartphone: all things to do
By following all the steps described below, we will be sure that, in the event that the phone ends up in the wrong hands, it will not be able to access our accounts or obtain personal information.Deactivate or lock the phone remotely
Android smartphones and iPhones allow you to disable or block access to the phone even remotely, it is sufficient that it is still on and connected to the Internet (via mobile data or via Wi-Fi). In fact, by using the features offered by the Find My iPhone or Find My Android services, we can find the phone or disable access to it using the computer or another smartphone.
As described in the guides that we have linked to above, simply log into the service control web page or install the specific app on another phone, then just select the lost phone, so you can use the functions remotely Lock your device or reset your device .
We advise you to leave the latter option only as a last resort, while we recommend that you immediately apply the device lock and start tracking the position, so that you can attempt a recovery in extremis. Note that the remote reset done in this way not only erases all the memory, but is also able to make the stolen phone unusable for anyone .
If the phone is offline or unreachable, the only way to defend our privacy is to act on the various accounts on the phone.
Remove WhatsApp from the lost phone
Let's start protecting WhatsApp, which is the most used app on modern smartphones. Given the functioning of the service, we will first of all have to get a new SIM card with the same number as the lost one and activate WhatsApp on the new phone. In this way we will deactivate the WhatsApp account on the stolen phone, since the service can only be activated on one phone number and on one device at a time.
If we do not have time to get a new SIM and a new phone, we can send an email to the WhatsApp deactivation service (address ), indicating as Lost / stolen object : Deactivation of my account and entering in the body of the email the telephone number in the full international format (ie with the +39 before the number).
Remove Telegram from the lost phone
If we use Telegram as an instant messaging app, we can also remove the account from a PC using Telegram Web or the Telegram PC app, possibly already associated with our account before the theft. To remove the account, simply open the app or site, take us to the side sidebar, select Settings, open the Privacy and security menu and finally click on Show sessions, present under Active sections .
All active Telegram sessions with our account will appear, including the one active on our lost or stolen phone; to close all the other sessions that are not currently active, just click on the item End all other sessions at the top.
If we have never associated Telegram with another smartphone, a web browser or the PC app, also in this case we will have to get a new SIM with the old number and a new phone, so that we can pair and proceed with the removal of old sessions.
Change password to Facebook or Instagram account
On Facebook and Instagram we will simply have to change the password in use on the services, so as to automatically disconnect all the other active sessions (including the one on the stolen phone). To change your password on Facebook simply open any web browser on your PC, go to the Facebook page, log in with our credentials then go to the top right on the arrowhead and select Settings . From here we go to the Security and access menu and click on the Change button next to the Change password item.
For greater security, we also click on View next to the item Access authorized, so as to remove the lost smartphone among those with uncontrolled access, taking care to also activate two-factor authentication (by clicking on the Edit button next to the item of the same name).
If we use Instagram with the Facebook account, we won't have to change anything else; if instead we use the Instagram account with a dedicated username and password, we open the Instagram Web page, we click on the gear-shaped button and we use the Change password item.
In another article we can find the guide to exit the web accounts and disconnect the sessions for many other sites, so that we can better protect our privacy also on other services, on other social networks or on other instant chats.
Change password for Google or Apple account
Other very important accounts on which we need to change the passwords are the Google account (in the case of Android smartphones) and the Apple account (in the case of iPhone).To change the password to the Google account, go to the Google Account Web page from any PC, log in with the credentials of our account and finally go to the Security menu, present in the left part of the window.
To change the password, simply click on the Password item in the Google Access section; a new window will open where we will be asked for the old password again, so we can choose a new one. For more security, scroll down the Security page until you find the Your devices section, then click Manage devices to remove the Google account from the lost or lost phone.
To change the password to the Apple ID account, we open the Apple ID page on any browser for PC or Mac, insert the access credentials in our possession, go to the Security section then click on Change password .
Enter the current password where requested, then choose a new password, confirming the change with the Change password button. All Apple devices with the old password will be disconnected from our account and can no longer be spied on.
