The mention of phone tracking evokes images of lost phones never recovered, phone tracking apps, network intervention and a plethora of other such diverse niceties.
There is a horde of tracking apps out there, especially for smart and feature phones, names like LookOut, MobiTracker, PreyProject and M-Spy come to mind. These are all there to solve the single problem: should I lose my phone (due to theft or forgetfulness) how can I find it? In the case of a forgotten phone, one left in some office of a not so close acquaintance, all one needs is the last known location then buzzing will take it from there. However, the stolen phone scenario is harder to solve.
There have been a few recoveries using the above-mentioned apps. For an enthusiast they do work. However, the hassle involved and the efficiency of the recoveries is nothing to sing home about. In Zimbabwe, some mobile networks offer to search and find the phone by finding subscriber details of the sim using a supposedly stolen phone, and this if the owner provides a police request signed by an officer commanding district. This is great but the problem is it only works if the thief is using the phone on that specific network during the period of search.
The problems with the current situation are:
- The tracking software can be flashed off before anyone uses the phone, leaving only the network option available.
- For devices with tracking apps, even with the tracking smses coming in from different numbers as the phone is changing hands, the justice of it requires a little bit more effort and dedication than the average phone owner can amass.
- On the part of the network cooperating in the tracking, it is a dead end when the device is used on a non-cooperating network,
- Where the network is cooperating, it is the police who should request and receive the information. This is usually quite difficult as the police will be overwhelmed with higher profile cases of robbery and car theft.
Having painted the grim picture lets go on to the design of a solution that would work. For phone security to work in this environment, it has to be provided by an insurer, or a retailer with strong insurance backing.
A product could work this way (assuming the company is called Swindle):
- A device owner insures his device with Swindle and cedes ownership thereof on condition of loss,
- The subscriber loses the device and reports the loss. Swindle investigates the conditions of loss and determines if device can be quickly recovered.
- Then one of
- Swindle recovers the device and gives it back to its owner
- Swindle reimburses the value of the lost device and takes ownership of it. This gives them the responsibility to carry out a full scale investigation to recover the. If recovered the device can be sold as second hand goods.
Unlike current insurance products for devices, the emphasis of Swindle is on recovery, and reimbursement is only done where chances of recovery are significantly low. It acts more like a paid search service. The upside of this type of insurance is that it will definitely have lower premiums (because there are chances of recovery and sale of the second hand recovered handsets), and its existence would create a positive inclination towards buying from traceable sources. Having a centralized hub for all stolen phone would create a stronger bargaining position with all mobile networks resulting in significant cooperation from them when tracking a stolen device.
Part of the current frustration especially with police cooperation is because we cannot all be equally persistent. One organisation requesting for documentation from the police will likely get quicker responses than 45 individuals requesting the same service every day. The purpose of this bottleneck is so that people are thorough before subscriber information is accessed. Nothing would appear more thorough than an organization dedicated to investigation and holding some documented proof of ownership.
Also the idea of insurance is very comfortable for owners of expensive gadgets such $1,000 tablets. Should car insurance be an indicator, the premiums paid wouldn’t be an arm and a leg.
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16 comments
Phones are usually covered under personal effects on your home contents policy. This will include your odd ipod, glasses(prescription or ray-bans, etc). I do not have faith in any application to recover my phone and have always taken the insurance route. I left my S2 on top of my car about 2 years ago after filling up at a garage. 1 minute later it was off and though I tried using the Samsung online trace system, it did not work. Even sending a wipe command failed. But am glad about having that phone and my current one auto backup everything into my Google account when I connect to wifi. I will grieve for 2 minutes for the loss of the hardware but know that in a week i will have another handset to use without the loss of any data.
If you have a phone worth R5000/$500 and above, get insurance. Apps and other handset recovery systems do not work. They mostly rely on your sim card to work not the IMEI number and most phones are flashed/reset within a second of being stolen. But I do hear wonderful stories on the Apple side of ipads/iphones being recovered. I suppose they have a better system in place than Android!
The find my iPhone/iPad works well but not sure if it does without Internet connectivity. Lost my iPhone in the evening when i stepped out of the car and only noticed it when i got home. Logged into my Laptop and iCloud and was able to locate it along Lomagundi road, drove there in the evening and found it exactly where it said the phone was. But without 3G it might not work (maybe it does). EVer since my phone’s Cellular data function is always on
I once recovered my stolen HTC in 2006 using one of these mobile trackers. I managed to get 1 sms from whoever had the phone before he flushed it. Had to task a private detective to do all the work. I got my phone back within 2 weeks
What the networks must is come together and have a black-list database of stolen phones this will reduce the market for stolen phones since they will not work on any zimbabwean network. But then again Networks in ZImbabwe DONT CARE ABOUT ME THEY JUST WANT MY MONEY
You are not alone. Even MTN?Vodacom say they will blacklist but that phone is on the street within a day.
The networks get their money from cellphone usage, so, more phones active on your network means more moolah.
I think to a certain extent, these guys are reluctant to switch off the stolen phones because it potential income for them.
I dont know the exact stats, but I think the operator would lose some money by switching off stolen phones on their networks
Recovered my Samsung after it was stolen. I had installed Avast anti theft. After rooting the device, I had it written to system files. So when the thiefs did a hard reset of the phone, the anti theft was still working. I got smses every time there was a sim change. I was also tracking its location on the internet. This helped the policeman who went to the location after getting the details of the owner of the line.
Rooting is great but I fear losing my warranty on it and Samsung giving me the finger
Would be happy to try what you did, it’s encouraging to note that it survived the hard reset,that’s all the country needs hey
There is a big relief for Samsung S4 owners as Samsung has partnered with Absolute Software http://www.absolute.com.
Absolute has stated building-in the tracking component that will track and report on the status of the stolen phone, it gathers intelligence and evidence on the user and reports back to the user or to our monitoring centre.
They have the same technology for laptops which cannot be circumvented and we have used it to secure, track and recover machines in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Most original computer manufacturers have already partnered with Absolute to the effect that all the computers will ship from their respective factories with the tracking component already installed. What will then need to happen is for the owner to activate the tracker and when the computer gets stolen, even after having been formatted etc, the tracker would still report.
We are currently in talks with a local insurance company to bundle this tech and make a very low premium insurance package for the Zimbabwean market.
Great product but people want freebies…like me! 🙂
How i wish i had it on my laptop
You can still get it for your new machine
Hie Farai, great product indeed but on the freebies,they are hard to come by these days boss
The tracking applications these days are really working well. As some commented, Android apps are many that are supporting the tracking facilities. I have had the same experience as well when I lost my HTC mobile. But, I could get it back but not simply tracking. I have ordered Linquets – https://linquet.com/select which works with simple Bluetooth technology. This really prevents the loss of your phone and valuables as well.
lost my one day Samsung Galaxy tablet but can’t locate it anyone to help me and tell me on what to do been o police they asked for seriel number can I recover it