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If my phone was ever lost or stolen, my only real concern is data and apps associated with my Google account, such as my Gmail, the ability to purchase apps from the Market, and maybe Picasa albums.

Is there a way to block access to these Google associated programs if I change my password or do something else with my account?

I would also be interested in any solution that remotely wipes my Google data. I know remote wiping questions have been asked before, but I feel that my question is a little more broad, in the sense of overall protection of data in which wiping is a possible answer.

FYI, I'm running a Gingerbread-based ROM on my Samsung Galaxy S (AT&T Captivate).

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10 Answers 10

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EDIT: I now personally use AndroidLost. In addition to everything listed below, there is also an AndroidLost Jupstart app that will launch the service remotely if your phone is already lost without any locating software on it. It's pretty sweet:

  • Read SMS'es Read the latest SMS'es from your phone and send them to your email.
  • Remote control alarm Have you ever misplaced your phone which was put on silent mode? Now you may sound the alarm on your phone from your PC!
  • View on map Find the location of your phone on a map. With AndroidLost you can find your phone with GPS precision. Even if the phone is indoor you will get a nearby location by network accuracy.
  • Send SMS'es from your PC You can send SMS'es directly from your phone by typing them on AndroidLost. All replies will still go to your phone.
  • Lock the phone You can lock and unlock the phone from the web. If you forget your pincode you can simply overwrite it or remove it by entering an empty pincode on the web.
  • Wipe the phone Don't want your personal messages in the hands of anyone else? With AndroidLost you may wipe the entire phone so all SMS'es, contact and google setup is removed.
  • Pop up messages on the phone Send a message to the friendly guy who have found your phone so you may let him know where to give it back.
  • Forward your calls You can send keys to the dialer of your phone. That way you can forward your calls from your mobile to a nearby phone.
  • No battery use AndroidLost will not use any battery since it does not poll any server to find out if it is lost. It uses the latest technology from google to send messages to the phone.
  • No pre installation required You didn't install AndroidLost on your phone? No problem! You can push the AndroidLost app to your phone from google market and initiate the connection to googles servers by sending an SMS with the message "androidlost register" to your phone.
  • Read status Detect how much battery is left, display IMEI, SIM card ID and much more.
  • SMS commands You can set up a phonenumber which can control you phone, i.e. start the alarm by sending an SMS to your phone.
  • Erase SD card Click a button and your SD card will be erased! Very useful if you have some naughty pictures on your sd card.
  • SIM card changed When the SIM card is changed an email will be sent to the owner of the phone.
  • Hidden SMS When the phone receives an SMS it plays a sound and displays an icon in the notification bar. But if it starts with androidlost it will not play any sound and not display any notification.
  • Call list A list of incomming and outgoing calls will be sent to your email.
  • Camera AndroidLost can take pictures with the front facing camera in case the phone is stolen. Only for android 2.3.
  • Tablets Honeycomb I think I have fixed it so AndroidLost works on tablets. The call functions will obviously fail if the tablet have no phone installed.
  • Text to speech You can make your phone speak out load. Suppose you have lost it on a café then you can make the phone say: 'I am lost - please pick me up!'
  • Multiple phones on the same account

Here are some others you can use:

SeekDroid does the following:

  • Locate your device
  • Remotely Enable GPS
  • Display its location on a map
  • Audible alarm (even on silent) w/ custom message
  • Lock device w/ custom code
  • Retrieve recent calls
  • Remotely wipe entire phone
  • Remotely wipe SD Card
  • Hide from app drawer
  • Disable App from being uninstalled
  • Virtually no battery drain
  • Works without a SIM Card
  • Reteive SIM ID, IMEI, and active phone number

and WatchDroidPro does the following:

  • Get your phone position (by network or GPS)
  • Retrieve current SIM information (useful when someone put another SIM card in your phone)
  • Share your position to friend
  • SIM substitute protection
  • Make it ringing even if the ringer is off
  • Wipe data
  • Lock your device

All of these should do what you're looking for :)

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Prey is possibly another option. I don't see a "remote wipe" feature, but there are these two features listed:

  1. No unauthorized access Fully lock down your PC, making it unusable unless a specific password is entered. The guy won't be able to do a thing!

  2. Keep your data safe Hide your Outlook or Thunderbird data and optionally remove your stored passwords, so no one will be able to look into your stuff.

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  • 1
    This is available for computers too, it works well :)
    – jlehenbauer
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 15:50
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Changing your google password will prevent the phone from syncing with your google account, but will not remove data already on the device.

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  • If you use 2-factor auth, you need to delete all auth tokens used on that phone. Password changes don't affect a token's validity.
    – ce4
    Commented Jun 12, 2012 at 15:15
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Google now provides the "Android Device Manager". It supports:

  • Remote Ring
  • Remote Wipe
  • Remote lock (password change)
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Lookout Premium is another option. It offers the ability to Lock and/or Wipe your device remotely. (Lookout Premium is $2.99/month.)

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  • Yeah, I had looked at that. Trying to decide if I want to spend the $3/month. Great answer though.
    – Chance
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 17:06
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    There is a discounted rate if you buy for an entire year. Plus, you get what you pay for.
    – ale
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 17:07
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With Droid Locator you have the following options :

  1. Your Phone sends it's location information in terms of tower info and/or GPS co ordinates as SMS, the moment it detects a change of sim card. ( In essence if someone tries to use your phone after stealing it ) to all the numbers registered in the app as broadcast numbers.

  2. Other than this, you can also find the locations of remote phones who are also using Droid Locator

  3. You can also share your current location with your friends via mail, bluetooth or post your location info as google map images.

The only drawback to this simple and nifty utility is the ad's but of course you cannot blame the developer for this.

Android Market Link

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With microsoft exchange account, you can wipe the phone

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  • Does it allow you to wipe the entire phone, or just emails?
    – jlehenbauer
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 15:51
  • All the phone, I have already made the manipulation : it's a factory reset
    – Guillaume
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 15:55
  • Interesting, i didn't know you could do that!
    – jlehenbauer
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 16:01
  • You have to synchronise your account with your phone, with email-app
    – Guillaume
    Commented Aug 19, 2011 at 16:09
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In ICS there's full device encryption, with full device encryption, the thief only had the chance to obtain your data until the next reboot (when the device dumps it's decryption key), essentially remote wiping the device unless you know the decryption password.

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Plan B is from the Lookout people.

Plan B is the 'find my phone' app that you download AFTER you lose your phone. Plan B is your last resort to find your missing phone.

This is the first and only 'find my phone' app that you download AFTER you've already lost your phone. Having Lookout on your phone is the best way to protect your phone and find it fast, but use Plan B if you have already lost your phone and didn't have Lookout installed.

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Carbonite Mobile, in addition to letting you see your Carbonite backups and to also backup your device, can also do the following:

  • Locate – Identify the location of your Android device on a map.
  • Ring – Misplaced your phone? Sound the ringer even if your phone is muted or set to vibrate.
  • Lock – Lock the screen on your device using a personalized pin.
  • Capture – Think your device was stolen? Remotely activate the camera to take a photo of the person using your phone.
  • Destroy –Remotely destroy all of your personal data and reset the device to its factory settings.

If you're already using Carbonite for your desktop systems this is a free option.

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