Chhavideep Singh
Credits: https://rb.gy/rm3lc8
A smartphone is important, period! Yes, one cannot imagine life without a smartphone in 2020 and that is why it is one of the most sold devices today. Want to know everything about a person, browse through his her phone because that is where all the data is and that might become a threat to you someday.
You wouldn’t want to lose your phone and expose all your personal data to a stranger; you need solid protection and guarantee that your personal information remains that way. Many times, this is not possible and the only option you are left with is to erase all your personal data from your stolen/lost phone remotely.
If you make sure to follow all the below mentioned steps on how you can erase all your personal data from your lost device via the internet, you might save yourself.
Have your Android smartphone with you right now- Download “Find My device”.
- Open Google Play Store
- Download “Find My Device”
- Skip to Google Settings, then Find My Device.
- Enable “Find My Device”
- Allow access to location services by the application.
This application also works for all Android-powered tablets and smartphones.
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Once you have the app installed and if it is stolen, you might want to install the app on another Android device and then Log-in.
Once you are logged in your account and your stolen smartphone is connected to the internet or even gets bare minimum signals, you will be able to track the live location of your smartphone on a map.
You will get three options:
- Ring Device
- Lock Device
- Erase Device
If in case, your stolen device is not connected to the internet, Find My Device application will wait for the signal and report via notification, the exact location of where the device found signals!
Once you know the location of your device, you can choose between the three options and for maximum safety of your personal data, opt for “Erase device”.
This option will permanently erase all your personal and private data from your Android smartphone, so you might want to keep this as a last measure.
If you think that you can retrieve your phone safely, Ring the device. This feature will ring your stolen or lost smartphone at maximum loudness for full 5 minutes. So, if your phone is not stolen and has fallen down or anything, you can always ring the device to know if it is anywhere near you.
Next, you can lock your smartphone remotely via “Find My Device” application.
If you are skeptical and unsure that your phone is locked or not, you can remotely access this feature to lock device screen and set a password or security question as well. If the thief is not a professional hacker, this will prevent him from going through your phone information which includes photos, videos, notes, banking details etc.
Last but the most effective measure is to erase your device. Imagine you have lost hope of finding your stolen or lost Android device and the above two options did not work. This option will give you the satisfaction that your personal data cannot be accessed anymore.
Unless you have data stored on your micro SD card because “Find My Device” will not be able to wipe off your SD card data!
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NOTE:
Never store sensitive information on your SD card because then you will not be able to remotely access or format your data from the tiny storage chip using “Find My Device”.
This is how you can erase all your personal/private/sensitive data from your lost or stolen Android smartphone or device, in general, using “Find My Device” application available on Google Play Store.