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Comment by Freak_NL | Hacker News Reader

> You lose your ability to pay for things (unless you have physical cards with you)

So don't do that. Always carry some cash and your debit and/or credit cards. Spread out the risk (especially when travelling).

> you lose access to your email/bank/github/etc. accounts protected by 2FA so you may not be able to work;

So don't do that. If you enable 2FA, have backups and recovery codes. Assume the phone will get lost at some point.

> you may lose your airline/train tickets (unless you have a physical copy with you) so you may not be able to travel.

So don't do that. When travelling I always take the printouts of the tickets along, even if I end up not needing them.

Don't turn your smartphone into your everything. Treat it as a tool which can get lost, stolen, or broken.

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But the reality is that we're fast approaching a future where every service assumes you have a smartphone and leaves you SOL if you don't.

As an extreme example, my previous workplace had a "smart" lock on the door that could only be opened with a bluetooth-enabled smartphone and a dedicated app. It was immensely dumb and everyone hated it, but the owners thought they could save on keycards by doing this and so they did, because every employee had a smartphone anyways.

I second this with the caveat that stealing someone’s car simply means they don’t have transportation (cost aside). For many theft of a phone could be losing all the things the OP mentions. Your average consumer has no idea what backup codes are. Your average consumer relies on the no contact pay. Your average consumer relies on 2FA.

There is a massively more inconvenience (cost aside again) in having your phone stolen versus your car. It could upend your life a lot worse than having your wallet or laptop stolen as well.

There are only so much things we can expect from the average consumer and theft of a phone massively changes that persons life.

I’m for increasing the resources put into specifically phone theft.

My laptop was stolen from the airport (inside security!) and I had needle like precision with where the cops could find it. Nothing was done and I simply got back the insured value for it and the items with it. It put me out of work for the trip I was taking but I’m not your average consumer and everything was backed up and I did still have my phone. If my phone had been taken and not on me I would have been in a much larger world of pain (though I have backup codes, etc.).

I don't have a mobile phone and regularly have issues with SMS based auth or a mobile phone regex match being the only option for a multitude of services.

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