We will stop you, Google tells phone thieves
Mobile phone theft is out of control. In many large cities around the world, it is now almost impossible to walk down a street while calling or texting without worrying that a thief on foot or a bike will rush past you, snatching your device as they do. Police action is now rare, and it has fallen to device manufacturers to resolve the problem.
Both Apple and Google have made phones much less valuable when stolen. A current phones can infer when it might have been taken or is in an unfamiliar place, restricting access to sensitive functions or any form of device reset. Expensive components can also be locked down, even slashing the value of a breakdown for parts.
Google is now going further. “Physical device theft can lead to financial fraud and data theft,” it says, “with the value of your banking and payment information many times exceeding the value of your phone.” It says it now offers “ the mobile industry’s most comprehensive suite of theft protection features” to stop that happening.
Shutting down phone thieves
These already include an automated lock when a device is snatched using on-device signals, an override when devices are taken offline and a remote lock facility that enables you to use a website (Android.com/lock) with just your phone number.
Now Google is going further to stop thieves in their tracks. Coming with Android 16 — albeit not on launch, the Android team says “we’re further hardening Factory Reset protections, which will restrict all functionalities on devices that are reset without the owner’s authorization. You’ll also gain more control over our Remote Lock feature with the addition of a security challenge question, helping to prevent unauthorized actions.”
Google will also shield one-time passcodes from a phone is locked or is in a potentially “higher risk scenario,” meaning it has not been unlocked recently.
Just as with Android 15, the next generation of the OS this summer will raise the bar further when it comes to user security and privacy. The goal is to level the playing field with iPhone, and the option to enable the new Advanced protection Mode does almost exactly that. I recommend users enable this when it’s available.
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