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So most of you are NOT using a pattern lock or other security on your phone?

Redflea said:
So you guys have to unlock the phone anyway w/the standard unlock screen, right?Minimum one swipe left-to-right every time.

So why not create a relatively simple pattern swipe - same effort, security added. :D
Click to expand...

Keep in mind, if you don't clean your screen EVERY time after you unlock it, people can see the unlock pattern via your fingerprint smear. Not that it's not useful, most dumb criminals will probably not think of that, but still...

I'm with a few others in this thread...My phone is on me all the time. If for some reason it does get stolen, most thieves are too dumb to turn of GPS, so I will attempt to use "wheres my droid" to locate my phone, then call the police with it's current GPS location...
 
Redflea said:
So you guys have to unlock the phone anyway w/the standard unlock screen, right?Minimum one swipe left-to-right every time.

So why not create a relatively simple pattern swipe - same effort, security added. :D
Click to expand...

but the pattern requires minimum 4 dots so you have to do some sort of L shape or similar at the least. more work than just swiping straight across. lol
 
dmodert66 said:
Keep in mind, if you don't clean your screen EVERY time after you unlock it, people can see the unlock pattern via your fingerprint smear. Not that it's not useful, most dumb criminals will probably not think of that, but still...

I'm with a few others in this thread...My phone is on me all the time. If for some reason it does get stolen, most thieves are too dumb to turn of GPS, so I will attempt to use "wheres my droid" to locate my phone, then call the police with it's current GPS location...
Click to expand...

My phone screen is covered with swipe marks...every time I touch the screen I leave an oily trail behind. I'm not worried my pattern will be obvious. :)

If you expect the police to drop what they are doing to go pick up your phone for you when you call, be prepared to be disappointed. A buddy made a similar call a year or so ago over his Blackberry, and their response was a combination of "How do you know where the phone will be by the time we get there?" and "We're busy keeping people from killing/maming each other, we don't have a lot of time to go pick of phones that have been lost. Why don't you drive over and pick it up yourself, and call us if they shoot at you. Then we'll be happy to help." :D
 
Redflea said:
If you're not using the pattern lock 'cause you're afraid you might hit the emergency dial, don't worry. All that does is bring up the dialer...it doesn't dial 911 automatically. It's an admittedly broad definition of "emergency" since you could use it to dial your girlfriend, or maybe Sears. ;)
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lol it won't let you call your girlfriend; but you're right, you have to dial 911
 
Redflea said:
If you're not using the pattern lock 'cause you're afraid you might hit the emergency dial, don't worry. All that does is bring up the dialer...it doesn't dial 911 automatically. It's an admittedly broad definition of "emergency" since you could use it to dial your girlfriend, or maybe Sears. ;)
Click to expand...

How do you set your emergency numbers? :confused:



dmodert66 said:
I'm with a few others in this thread...My phone is on me all the time. If for some reason it does get stolen, most thieves are too dumb to turn of GPS, so I will attempt to use "wheres my droid" to locate my phone, then call the police with it's current GPS location...
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, does "wheres my droid" work after a factory reset?
 
gotwillk said:
but the pattern requires minimum 4 dots so you have to do some sort of L shape or similar at the least. more work than just swiping straight across. lol
Click to expand...

OH MY LORD!! Four dots! FOUR!?! I apologize, I had no idea what I was asking... ;)
 
rawness said:
How do you set your emergency numbers? :confused:
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My assumption was that it was automatically set to 911 for the US. I didn't look for a way to set it. I did look just now and don't see any way to set a contact as an emergency number in Contacts.


rawness said:
Just out of curiosity, does "wheres my droid" work after a factory reset?
Click to expand...

Nope - reset removes all programs/data, and unless they had your gmail info they wouldn't be able to log in w/it after reset and have all the programs restored. :)
 
rawness said:
^
OK, cool, so if they decide to reset, they've essentially bricked it as far as they're concerned.
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Actually, unless you call VZW and turn off service, they can log in w/a gmail account and use your phone to do whatever they want. Can't get to your data at that point, but can call who they want, surf the net, tether and download porn to their laptop, etc.

Even if you kill service I don't know why they wouldn't be able to use it on WiFi for all data functions - no calls (unless there is a working VOIP option) but everything else.
 
everything you carry has your personal information on it. what if you had a regular ol' flip phone? would you have a lock on that? do you have a lock on your laptop? what about your wallet? i don't have locks on any of them. i don't have that much super sensitive information. and if someone really wanted it, they could get to it even if i used the pattern lock. i'm just not very concerned. it's been discussed before. if someone wants my info they can get it off of one of the many servers that i am connected to.
more power to you if you want the added security. in my experience the people that use pattern lock or password protection use it because they don't want their friends screwin' with their phone. i don't have that concern either. i just don't hang around with people that f$ck with my stuff. my friends understand how seriously i take technology.

different strokes for different folks i suppose.

-randy
 
Some people have really high opinions of themselves to think they're prime targets to get their phone stolen.

I don't use an unlock pattern, and never will. I've never once lost my phone (outside of which room in my house) or had it stolen,.
 
Redflea said:
My phone screen is covered with swipe marks...every time I touch the screen I leave an oily trail behind. I'm not worried my pattern will be obvious. :)

If you expect the police to drop what they are doing to go pick up your phone for you when you call, be prepared to be disappointed. A buddy made a similar call a year or so ago over his Blackberry, and their response was a combination of "How do you know where the phone will be by the time we get there?" and "We're busy keeping people from killing/maming each other, we don't have a lot of time to go pick of phones that have been lost. Why don't you drive over and pick it up yourself, and call us if they shoot at you. Then we'll be happy to help." :D
Click to expand...

On the swipe marks issue, I was simply reiterating what others have said in a thread specifically about this. Many can see their swipe "trails". I'm not saying this will happen to every user, but it's certainly possible, and more plausible that some common thief would notice this, rather than knowing to turn off GPS.

On the police issue, if they don't respond, I will tell them flat out "Fine, I am going to round up some friends and go get my phone back.", and then I will proceed to do so...
 
Galaxy user here ... with a tip for y'all:
AutoLock allows you to have a pattern configured, but only forces you to enter it if you've been away from your device for 'x' minutes.

I've set mine up so it activates after 4 hours. This way, I use the simple screen unlock most of the time, and the secure one once or twice a day.

The idea being, of course, that I don't need to lock it from me, but from whoever finds it, which is presumably not immediately after I walked away from it.
 
KlaymenDK said:
Galaxy user here ... with a tip for y'all:
AutoLock allows you to have a pattern configured, but only forces you to enter it if you've been away from your device for 'x' minutes.

I've set mine up so it activates after 4 hours. This way, I use the simple screen unlock most of the time, and the secure one once or twice a day.

The idea being, of course, that I don't need to lock it from me, but from whoever finds it, which is presumably not immediately after I walked away from it.
Click to expand...

Sounds great...I'll be checking that out for sure! Thanks for the tip!
 
KlaymenDK said:
Galaxy user here ... with a tip for y'all:
AutoLock allows you to have a pattern configured, but only forces you to enter it if you've been away from your device for 'x' minutes.

I've set mine up so it activates after 4 hours. This way, I use the simple screen unlock most of the time, and the secure one once or twice a day.

The idea being, of course, that I don't need to lock it from me, but from whoever finds it, which is presumably not immediately after I walked away from it.
Click to expand...

Cool. Do you know if it's compatible with Android 2.0 yet? I don't even know what version Galaxy has...sorry, but I've never heard of it. I've avoided the pattern lock, frankly, because I'm currently unemployed and not really out and about enough to warrant any security. Nor have I done anything like banking on my Droid yet. However, I think once I am employed again, something like this would be perfect.
 
KlaymenDK said:
Galaxy user here ... with a tip for y'all:
AutoLock allows you to have a pattern configured, but only forces you to enter it if you've been away from your device for 'x' minutes.

I've set mine up so it activates after 4 hours. This way, I use the simple screen unlock most of the time, and the secure one once or twice a day.

The idea being, of course, that I don't need to lock it from me, but from whoever finds it, which is presumably not immediately after I walked away from it.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip.

I'd much rather have to enter a passcode AFTER I swipe to unlock like I did what I had that other fruity phone because having to do the pattern unlock everytime after a couple of minutes gets old fast for me for some reason.
 
I work for a school district so I have the unlock pattern. If a student would get their hands on my phone they would have access to teachers numbers as well as facebook accounts.

I also have Wave Secure and Where's My Droid.
 
benna12 said:
Can I put a pattern lock on and if I have tried it for a while and do not want it anymore, can I remove it?
Click to expand...

Yep.



As for the "It only has a couple website passwords on it" folks, 90% of the people on the internet reuse passwords, or combinations of passwords. Why give someone a head start to your bank's passwords?
 
Barbara said:
I work for a school district so I have the unlock pattern. If a student would get their hands on my phone they would have access to teachers numbers as well as facebook accounts.

I also have Wave Secure and Where's My Droid.
Click to expand...

Heh, I've found if you want to get around some type of security, set it up in a middle school. Give it a couple weeks, they'll figure it out. I've also found giving laptops to Gym teachers is a bad idea. They'll use them for attendance in the gym, and then the kids will use it as a target in dodge ball. I don't know how many macbook screens I've had to replace because of this.
 
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