Never Lock Your Cell Phone | Hacker News Reader

Never Lock Your Cell Phone

rocketships.ca

17 pointsKluny45 comments

Better title "I was pretty lucky and lost stuff a lot and people returned it! You too should rely on luck and the kindness of strangers instead of basic precautions!" Yea, given that my entire bag incl. laptop was stolen from me at a bar a few weeks ago? Sounds totally stupid.

1. I'm sorry, I absolutely do not trust random strangers with access to all of my email accounts, my facebook account, twitter, etc, banks that allow me to bypass some authentication questions by calling from the phone listed under my account, etc. 2. To use my work email on my phone, a lock is enforced. 3. If I lose my phone, I can set an arbitrary message to show on the screen through the windows phone 'find my phone' feature on the web, or if I didn't have that, leave my lockscreen with contact details showing.

On Android, Settings > Security > Owner info. Then you can have some alternative method of contacting you on the lock screen, whilst also protecting privacy in case the wrong person finds your lost phone.

On my Galaxy S2 (Android 4.1.2) that menu is found under Settings > Lock Screen > Owner Information.

Android 4.0 on HTC/Virgin Mobile doesn't have the option.

I had no idea about this. Thanks! Any thoughts on what to put in there? I just added ‘if found please email ...’ but it could perhaps be improved.

I have my name, my email address, and an alternate land line phone number with an answering machine.

I've setup up: "<my name> | EMERGENCY CONTACT: <wife's name> @ <wife's number>"

A side-effect of having a long string like the above is that the OS will scroll the text side-to-side (marquee style) to display the whole thing.. thus catching the attention of whoever is looking at the lock screen.

My phone has my phone number (Heh, not helpful) and my email address on the lockmscreen - So shouldn't be any trouble to get in touch :-).

The majority of people are awesome out there, but unfortunately - there are some who aren't; I would prefer those who are not to not have access to phone where they could: - GPS their way back to my home if my address is saved and possibly break in if they know my calendar. - Text family contacts for personal information. - Have access to my email where they could start trying to recover passwords. - And the list can go on.

Phones today are incredibly insecure, and while I do all that I can in locking individual applications - I'd prefer a stranger to not have access to all of that; especially with my email address as a means of contact on my lock screen. I'd personally prefer to just lose my phone entirely rather than open up the possibility to someone accessing important information.

I concede that there's some stuff on your phone that you don't want spread around. However, I refer you to the ipod touch story - the woman who found it was not tech-savvy. Though she had good intentions and wanted to return it, she didn't know how to use email. Those people are more common than you think. Maybe your parents or spouses phone number?

Even then, you have to hope that the person doesn't have phone phobia (like me) and isn't deaf (like me), to phone. With full access to the phone, most people can find a contact mechanism that works for them.

Is this a Canadian thing? Because that's NEVER happened to me Atlanta/NYC).

Heck we even left an iPhone in an airplane seat pocket. Realized it as soon as we stepped off, but they wouldn't let us go back and get it due to "security". They assured us it'd be in lost and found. NOT.

I'd be amazing to make a heatmap of wallet/iphone returns so I can move to the best place on earth :)

I've forgotten a $300 pair of headphones, an iPhone and a Kindle in an airplane seat pocket. I didn't even realize I'd done that until I got an email a few days later from the Zurich airport lost&found who somehow tracked me down. And that's pretty much expected. I've had friends forget inordinate amounts of stuff into Swiss public transport, etc, and somehow the items always find their way home.

(When I went to fetch those things I forgot in the airplane, I left my other phone on the lost&found desk. Going back for that was a bit embarrassing.)

I found an iPod mini once. No contact info. On a whim I connected it to iTunes, which prompted me to log in as account "xxxxxxxx@yahoo.com". Emailed that person and they got it from me the next day.

There is always a way to return a device even without the most obvious of contact methods for even the most tech illiterate (eg android and iOS lock screen messages). Leaving your device unlocked just in hopes of getting it returned seems pretty stupid to do.

Since you can get to all my emails in one click, that phone will remain locked at all times.

I have "emergency contacts" on my locked screen. (android phone) I make sure family contacts in my phone listed as:

Mom name Dad name Gf name etc.

My lock screen has a message on it that gives a number to call if the phone is found.

"If found, call or text xxx-xxx-xxxx"

My android and blackberry had it but I haven't seen that on an iphone. Unfortunately, company phones require locks/passwords so you cant just leave it unlocked.

It's not too hard to set that up that up on an iPhone. Take a screenshot of a note with what ever text you want on the lockscreen or and set that as your lock screen wallpaper.

Also, for as long as there has been an App Store, there have been apps specifically for letting you overlay message over images specifically for this purpose.

Thanks for the tip!

I know the likely hood of it working is slim, but what about a site that let owners of electronics link the devices serial number to their contact info?

Device Owner: Go to [URL] and create an account, Register a device to your account by Device + Serial Number

Device Finder: Find a device, Go to [URL] and search the serial number, Find owners contact info, Call/Email/Contact owner and return device

You would probably want to have some small, unobtrusive stickers for people to stick on the device with the URL as a hint to anyone that finds it.

FYI, you can find out the owner of a locked iPhone by opening Siri and asking "Whose phone is this?". Still, so few people know about that you're better off keeping your phone unlocked.

Yay for Victoria/Vancouver Island shout-out - but I'm not sure that this is true in all corners of the world ... And definitely invest in better pockets, sheesh! :)

I agree that Victoria is particularly friendly, but I wouldn't write off the rest of the world automatically. I lost a cell phone in Victoria that never got returned. I lost my wallet in Toronto and it was. There are good people all over the world.

With that being said, you do have a far greater chance of having your phone returned if it's unlocked. If it's locked and you don't have personal info on the home screen, then there's a 0% chance of it finding it's way home.

The iPhone doesn't have the functionality natively, but I just used an image editor to write my email and family members' phone numbers into my lock screen image.

If your iPhone is set up with Find My iPhone, you can remotely lock it and display a number to call:

http://cl.ly/image/2Z1b291T093Y

FYI - Police in Canada can then legally look into your phone. If it's pass protected, they have to get a warrant first.

On another note, I don't lock my laptops. If someone steals it, I want them to be able to log in and use it. Then, I might be able to track them - it's a slim chance, but it could happen.

If they can't log in, chances are they'll just wipe it.

Made me think of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4oB28ksiIo

I have a moderately-locked down guest account on my computers that serves this purpose. Also useful if family want to come over and use my computer - not that they ever do. They struggle to use OS X.

The site is unavailable for me. Judging from other comments in this thread, is the gist basically to leave the phone unlocked so that the person who picks up the phone when you lose it can find out your contact information and get in touch with you?

Yep.

Which isn't great advice. Sure a side effect of having it unlocked is that it makes it easier to find the owner to get in contact with. But having unlocked means it can potentially come with many downsides.

I think the better point is to make people think about how someone will get it back to you when it is locked. So either make sure you lock screen image has some contact details on it (could be as simple as screenshotting the notes app etc) or use Find My iPhone and push a message (or both!)

I can't help but think of all the things I'm auto-logged into on my phone.. Twitter, Facebook, calendar, company email, etc. And that's not even considering the tech messages and other notes that might be in there.

While an unlocked phone might be great in the honestly-lost scenario, the stolen-while-I'm-not-looking scenario makes me way more nervous.

My grandparents used to get these keychains from their Exxon filling station that said "Return Postage Guaranteed" and had a serial number and an Exxon address to mail them to. Just drop them in the mailbox.

A few years ago I lost my phone while hiking, at about 10,000 feet in elevation, which I didn't discover until back down the mountain. It was raining and so I figured it was ruined. The next day, just as I was about to have my employer call in and transfer the service to a new SIM, a friend IMed and said that someone had found it and had sent a text message to the most recent person I had messaged.

It was an old nokia phone, so the value was maybe $50, but it was still amazing to get it back.

Idea: Put all of your contact info on the lockscreen background image

For all of those recommending custom info on the lock screen: what if the battery is dead, or the phone is broken, or the finder has no idea how to turn it on, etc, etc? I used a labeler to make tiny stickers that say "Reward for Return" along with my land line and email address. I had used stuffbak.com before, but saw no reason why anyone would be more likely to call the number of their sticker than mine.

OP has learned the wrong lesson from some bad experiences. When you lose your keys, your wallet, your cellphone: the right lesson to learn is to evaluate how you can change your personal procedures to avoid this loss in the future. I've lost my keys, my wallet, and my cellphone-- but after deciding I never want to do it again and taking steps, I haven't lost any of them in many years.

Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&safe=...

Thanks - I've never had this much traffic before!

There are some things that pop up on HN that just really call for a downvote button.

If you have an iPhone and "Find My iPhone" turned on you can send your phone messages, that will be available to read even if you phone is locked. Like if you find this phone please call me at ....

Dude it's rough as fuck round here. I lose my phone (it gets jacked) and all my contacts receive rape videos and death threats and only the gods know what else. I would love to live in your world.

I just slid a business card between my phone and the case. If someone's inclined to return it, great, they'll find the card. If they aren't, they aren't perusing all my personal shit.

If I found a locked phone, I myself would never think to remove the case & look for things inside.

I don't expect people to go searching for treasures, but anything you would do with the phone short of just throwing it into the trash will involve you taking the case off.

NEVER CACHE YOUR WORDPRESS INSTALL.

Sorry :( Any advice how I should fix it?

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