This is such an important distinction to make. Being able to wipe the phone would require a second device, so unless you are with someone who has access to that phone, you have to wait until you get home to initiate it.
Iirc my pixel has a “in case your phone is stolen from you” automation. Though I don’t know the mechanics of how it works.
Yeah, I couldn’t get into my account on someone else’s phone to wipe/trace down my phone. As I believe I’d need 2 factor authentication. Which while mobile I can’t do without my phone. I’d have to wait till I got home and a device id previously been logged into.
Interesting, that’s good to know. I immediately tried to lock the woman’s phone next to me by using her number, she didn’t have it turned on either. I have an odd feeling someone is going to write a script that locks someone’s phone screen at random intervals throughout the day. Schedule it as a task whenever they log into their work computer so you can watch them struggle with it throughout the day then end the task when they lock their screen/log off.
I actually had the same reaction and so I looked into it. The threat is pretty low.
Worst case scenario is that you’re working on something critical and your phone gets locked. You unlock it with PIN and move on. According to the docs, this can only be done a few times a day (iirc twice. I’m too lazy to look it up again. It’s 2am and I should be sleeping 😅)
If it gets annoying, you could turn it off until the attacker moves on.
More realistically, you’re on Lemmy while in the bathroom and you just have to unlock your phone.
If it happens with some level of regularity, I’m sure Google would either rate-limit the attacker or the phone number.
I run my own NAS and Nextcloud server. Most of the data on my phone is synced there.
So I am somewhat prepared for the loss of my phone, but not really for the possibility of someone else using it (accounts etc).
This is such an important distinction to make. Being able to wipe the phone would require a second device, so unless you are with someone who has access to that phone, you have to wait until you get home to initiate it.
Iirc my pixel has a “in case your phone is stolen from you” automation. Though I don’t know the mechanics of how it works.
Yeah, I couldn’t get into my account on someone else’s phone to wipe/trace down my phone. As I believe I’d need 2 factor authentication. Which while mobile I can’t do without my phone. I’d have to wait till I got home and a device id previously been logged into.
For Android, it looks like you can go to https://android.com/lock and use your phone number to lock your phone.
No MFA required. But this has to be enabled on your phone in order for it to work.
Interesting, that’s good to know. I immediately tried to lock the woman’s phone next to me by using her number, she didn’t have it turned on either. I have an odd feeling someone is going to write a script that locks someone’s phone screen at random intervals throughout the day. Schedule it as a task whenever they log into their work computer so you can watch them struggle with it throughout the day then end the task when they lock their screen/log off.
I actually had the same reaction and so I looked into it. The threat is pretty low.
Worst case scenario is that you’re working on something critical and your phone gets locked. You unlock it with PIN and move on. According to the docs, this can only be done a few times a day (iirc twice. I’m too lazy to look it up again. It’s 2am and I should be sleeping 😅)
If it gets annoying, you could turn it off until the attacker moves on.
More realistically, you’re on Lemmy while in the bathroom and you just have to unlock your phone.
If it happens with some level of regularity, I’m sure Google would either rate-limit the attacker or the phone number.