Max Limpag
Celltalk
APART from the loss of a relatively expensive device, what’s the next thing that worries you when you can’t find your phone or it gets stolen? The loss of your contacts?
Your messages? Risqué photographs?
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to track down your stolen phones or remotely delete all the files in it?
With a program called WaveSecure, you can apparently do this.
WaveSecure, which you can download at www.wavesecure.com, allows you to secure your phone and even track it when it gets lost or stolen.
The program, which can be installed in various mobile phone units and brands, allows you to lock down the device and render it unusable to the thief. It also allows you to keep track of the device, even when a new SIM card is installed. It will then send out an alert to a number that you specified in the setup.
LOCKING THE PHONE. The software can also auto-lock your phone when the SIM is changed. You can also lock the phone by sending it an SMS message.
WaveSecure also simplifies the backing up of your phones files and data. You can even remotely trigger the backup process.
That way, you can still get copies of crucial data even if the phone is no longer with you just as long as it’s still on.
That feature will allow you to keep track of messages sent from and received by the phone. It will also allow you to keep track of calls made from the phone or received by it. With that data, you have a chance of identifying the thief who took you
WaveSecure also offers the ability to track the location of the stolen device. The software’s website does not say how it does this but I suspect it implements tracking through triangulation via GSM towers. This is also how telcos’ person finder services track down phone units. But while GSM triangulation can give you an accurate general location, it cannot give you the vicinity of the device.
WIPE OUT DATA. But one of the best features of the device is the ability to remotely order it to wipe out all your data.
When your phone gets stolen, you can ask WaveSecure to remove all your data in it---photos, messages, etc. This way, potentially embarrassing material can be taken off the device before it gets spread online.
WaveSecure, however, isn’t free software. To be able to use the service, you have to pay five euros or about P350 for three months of usage or 15 euros or close to P1,000 for a year’s service.
In 2007, a student team from the Bulacan State University won P1 million in the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (Sweep) Innovation and Excellence Awards with its software that could track stolen phones and aid in their recovery. The lead student of the team eventually got hired by Smart but I haven’t heard, however, of any update to the software.
(Max Limpag blogs at http://max.limpag.com)