Featured Posts in Stolen

Keep an emergency $20 in your phone case

In Money, Smartphone, Case, Emergency, Wallet, Stolen, / 12 May 2012 / 0 comments

The merits of smartphone cases are a subject of debate, but if you do use one, consider storing an emergency $20 bill between the cover and the phone.

As Reddit user Lunkavitch points out, the money could come in handy to pay a cab or lunch bill if your wallet gets stolen, or if you just forgot it at home. It may seem a little paranoid, but it's a small insurance policy that could get you out of a jam if your wallet goes missing.

LPT: Keep a $20 bill between your phone and its case. You'll have some cash if you lose your wallet | Reddit
Have You Ever Lost Your Phone (and Gotten It Back)?

In Ask The Readers, Lost Phont, Lost, Stolen, Theft, Smartphones, Cellphones, Recovery, Ios, Android, / 15 March 2012 / 0 comments
We've featured lots of ways to find your lost or stolen phone, but we're wondering how many of you have actually gotten your phone back after losing it.

A recent experiment by Symantec purposely "lost" 50 smartphones in cities around the US. Symantec found that only 50% of of those smartphones ever had a chance at being returned, and even 96% of them were accessed by their finders—in more privacy-breaking ways than one:
This may have started as an attempt to discover the owner of the phone, but our research shows that the finders of these devices had what can graciously be called a curiosity about more than the name of the owner. Case in point:

Six out of 10 finders attempted to view social media information and email.

Eight out of 10 finders tried to access corporate information, including files clearly marked as "HR Salaries," "HR Cases", and other types of corporate information.

If you are in any way associated with securing a company's valuable information, those are pretty striking numbers. However, it is not just business-related information that is at risk and a cause for legitimate concern. Our "honey stick" smartphones also had an application that appeared to allow access to a remote computer or network. Surely, people wouldn't go that far. Well, one out of every two finders tried to run the "Remote Admin" app.
Apart from being yet another warning to lock your device, this study piqued our curiosity. I've never lost my phone, but I've returned two or three that I found on the street. We're wondering: have you ever lost your phone, and if so, did you ever get it back? Tell us your tales of success (or woe) in the comments. And hit the link to read more about the study and Symantec's recommendations for protecting your data.

Introducing the Symantec Smartphone Honey Stick Project | Symantec Blog via CNET

Photo by RBerteig.
CameraTrace Finds Your Stolen Camera by Monitoring Photos Shared Online

In Security, Stolen, Stolen Camera, Camera, Theft, Photography, Photos, Recovery, Ios, Android, / 28 December 2011 / 0 comments

GadgetTrak's new CameraTrace service helped a professional photographer get back $9,000 worth of stolen gear. CameraTrace can also help you recover your lost or stolen camera, as well as find people using your photos without permission.

Like previously mentioned StolenCameraFinder, CameraTrace works by searching photos uploaded online for your camera's serial number. (Most cameras embed the serial number information in the EXIF data of every photo taken with that camera. CameraTrace has a list of supported cameras here.)

You'll need your camera's serial number to do the free search (i.e., you can't upload a photo to do the search, as you can with StolenCameraFinder). The serial number is found on the camera itself and the camera box, so if you still have either of those on hand, now's a good time to write the serial number down just in case.

CameraTrace comes with a couple of advantages over similar services. For one thing, CameraTrace claims access to a much larger database of photos than its competitors. Also, if you register your camera for a one-time $10 fee, CameraTrace will actively monitor the web for photos from your camera once you report it missing—saving you the hassle of repeatedly searching via other sites. Once it finds anyone trying to upload photos from your camera, CameraTrace will notify you by email.

The $10 fee for CameraTrace includes a lost and found tag as well, so in case your camera is just lost rather than stolen, a good samaritan can return the camera to you.

One final benefit for professional photographers is copyright protection: The image monitoring service shows you where your photos are being used, perhaps without permission.

You might not have $9K worth of camera gear to protect, but for many this is still worthwhile insurance.

CameraTrace | GadgetTrak via TechCrunch
Windows Live for Windows 8 Will Have Cross System Sync, Let You Track PCs and Windows Phones If Lost

In Windows 8, Windows Live, Live Id, Skydrive, Windows, Microsoft, Cloud, Cloud Storage, Accounts, Ids, Lost, Stolen, Windows Phone, Wp7, News, / 23 September 2011 / 0 comments

Microsoft tipped at the BUILD developer's conference last week that Windows Live and SkyDrive will have a big role in Windows 8. Windows Live users will be able to tie their personal computers and phones to Windows Live, log in to all of them with their Live ID, and let Windows Live manage their profile and application settings in the cloud.

Microsoft also explained that SkyDrive will provide a unified cloud-based storage solution for all Windows PCs and Windows Phones for your most important data. You'll also be able to share those files publicly with friends on Facebook or Twitter. SkyDrive, which already offers file syncing and cloud-storage and sharing for Windows PCs, will get a Metro-style makeover and play a more central role to file management in Windows 8.

In the same vein, Microsoft said your Windows Live ID will play a central role in Windows 8. If configured, you'll use your Windows Live ID to log in to your Windows 8 PC, and Windows Live will manage your local account profile and all of your application settings for you. The data will be stored in the cloud, and in addition to login information, Microsoft also said that your Windows Live account will keep track of all of your Windows PCs and Windows Phones and allow you to connect to your PC when you're remote, or find and manage your Windows Phones if they're lost or stolen.

Do you currently use Windows Live or SkyDrive to manage your important data? Do you think you'll set up your Windows Live ID to manage your local logins in Windows 8? Share your thoughts in the comments.

A Preview of Windows Live for Windows 8 | Inside Windows Live

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.

Keep an emergency $20 in your phone case

Have You Ever Lost Your Phone (and Gotten It Back)?

CameraTrace Finds Your Stolen Camera by Monitoring Photos Shared Online

Windows Live for Windows 8 Will Have Cross System Sync, Let You Track PCs and Windows Phones If Lost

Turn an Old Cellphone Into a Super Cheap Home Automation System

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