Reasons why you should stop using password protection on your smartphone

Password protection is one of the common security protection methods widely used to prevent inversion of your privacy. Other popular methods widely used to protect electronic gadgets especially smartphones are, patterns, fingerprints and retina eye recognition systems.
In as much as protecting our smartphones locks out other people from accessing your information, using any of the above mentioned methods may be the number one reason why you may never recover your smartphone when it gets lost.

Dangers associated with locking your smartphone with password security

With any form of security protection that will lock anyone out when trying to access your data,Chances of recovering your smartphone when it gets lost is almost zero.
Whether you are password, fingerprints, Pattern or retina eye recognition security protection, if you misplace or lose your phone, recovering such a gadget will entirely depend on the good will of the person in possession of the smartphone. If it was stolen from you, then the intention of the thief is never to return it.

So where is the danger?

You see, whenever your lost smartphone lands in the wrong hands, the stranger will most likely throw away your SIM cards with intentions to use it or sell it off. But because the smartphone is protected, they will need to use whichever possible method to unlock it and wipe out your security protection. This is where the idea of changing the smartphone’s firmware comes in.
Most phone technicians have these firmwares and each phone maker makes the firmware available for troubleshooting handsets.
By changing the smartphone’s firmware, all the records are completely wiped out and no trace is left behind to show that you were using the handset. Some go to an extent that the IMEI is completely changed thus making it almost impossible to trace the handset.
While reset factory settings may wipe out your personal information, the new user may not be able to use it as the primary account will be required in most cases to set a new account.
This is common to both android and iPhone handsets.

How to easily recover your lost or stolen smartphone

It is much easier to recover a stolen or lost handset if in the first place you were not using any form of handset protection like password,pattern, fingerprints or retina eye recognition services. Your email account on your smartphone can greatly help to recover your smartphone.
You see, no one will bother changing the smartphone’s firmware if in the first place they can access the gadget and delete your records. They will simply add their email accounts on the gadget and start using it with no restrictions.
With your gmail traceable on your handset, you can use Find My Device Google app to trace and recover your smartphone with a lot of ease.
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How to use find my device app to recover your smartphone

If you lose an Android phone or tablet, or Wear OS watch, you can make it ring, find, lock, or erase it. If you’ve added a Google Account to your device, Find My Device is automatically turned on.
To find, lock, or erase an Android phone, that phone must:

• Be turned on
• Be signed in to a Google Account
• Be connected to mobile data or Wi-Fi
• Be visible on Google Play
• Have Location turned on
• Have Find My Device turned on

With an iPhone, you can as well recover any of your Apple product as shown below. The app allows you to do the following on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch and so on

• View Location
• Play a Sound
• Mark as Lost (Lost Mode)
• Remote Erase

How to set up and Use find My Device App

1. Go to android.com/find and sign in to your Google Account.
   • If you have more than one phone, click the lost phone at the top of the screen.
   • If your lost phone has more than one user profile, sign in with a Google Account that’s on the main profile.
2. The lost phone gets a notification.
3. On the map, you’ll get info about where the phone is.
   • The location is approximate and might not be accurate.
   • If your phone can’t be found, you’ll see its last known location, if available.
4. Pick what you want to do. If needed, first click Enable lock and erase.
   • Play sound: Rings your phone at full volume for 5 minutes, even if it’s set to silent or vibrate.
   • Secure device: Locks your phone with your PIN, pattern, or password. If you don’t have a lock, you can set one. To help someone return your phone to you, you can add a message or phone number to the lock screen.
   • Erase device: Permanently deletes all data on your phone however this method might not delete data on SD cards. After you erase, Find My Device won’t work on the phone.
     Important: If you find your phone after erasing, you’ll likely need your Google Account password to use it again.

One of the biggest tips when trying to recover your device is to identify the location where the device is, you can then perform further actions like lock it or make it ring when you are within the locality.

Better security protection methods for your smartphone

It is almost impossible to have a smartphone that is not protected with any of the above mentioned methods. With the need to secure our handsets being almost inevitable, using swipe method.