As part of Device Theft Awareness Month this August, a team of bloggers is helping us uncover the truth about mobile theft. In the #AbsoluteUncovered series, we’ll be bringing you a month of theft prevention tips provided by ourselves and our bloggers.
Phones Are a Distraction and a Risk
Mobile theft is opportunistic. Thieves notice we’re distracted and swoop in while our device is in a hand and we don’t see them coming. As Kristina notes on KristinaHorner.com, “Our attention is divided and we’re not totally aware of our surroundings.” Just as texting while driving is a no-no, having a phone out really blocks our ability to see risks and draws unnecessary attention to our expensive gadgets.
Kristina notes a common misconception, that talking on a phone makes you more “safe” when out alone. If you have your phone out, you’re more likely to be a target, whether you’re having a conversation or not. It’s hard to keep those devices away, so Kristina offers some more realistic tips including: pull out your phone only when you’re somewhere safe, have a secure place for your phone, don’t use earbuds, turn off your ringer and don’t fall for common bait tactics.
Mobile Theft Hits Close to Home
Jenn from The Rebel Chick shares a story of how her teenage daughter had her phone stolen from her book bag in school last year, becoming just one of the 3.1 million Americans who were victims of theft that year. Jenn notes, “We know firsthand the feelings of violation and desperation that come along with the theft of a mobile device. It stinks, to say the least.” When Jenn’s daughter’s phone was stolen, many precious photos were lost (and not backed up), including photos from her 16th birthday and her first trip to Europe. Then her privacy? Who knows who saw (or used) her personal information.
Jenn admits the thought of theft would be devastating to her, since she has more financial and business information on her own phone.
You Don’t Always Notice Your Phone is Missing
When we think of mobile theft, many of us visualize someone grabbing our phone and running. That happens, and is happening with more violence, but not all thefts happen this way. Many are preventable and many happen by accident. You may have left your device on a table while you used a washroom. Or were distracted during conversation while your phone was discreetly taken from you.
HiLesha of ToTheMotherhood shares how her phone was one of the “lucky ones”, when she realized it was missing and tracked it to a street. It wasn’t stolen, just lost, but it could have been at any moment.
Our Phones Contain Our Lives
Trisha at momdot shares how it’s quite literally “raining electronics” in her home, with computers, iPads, iPhone and e-readers all over the place. Losing one or having it stolen? A “worst nightmare” scenario.
You know mobile theft has hit epidemic proportions not by the numbers alone, but by your own personal stories. Do you know someone who has had their phone stolen? It seems that everyone has a story, either personal or through friends. Trisha shares a story of a friend whose phone was stolen – a phone with contained the only pictures she had of her baby that had passed away.
“These phones and tablets, they contain our LIVES. Our personal lives, our financial lives, the access to who we are. And in the wrong hands losing them or getting them stolen can be devastating.”
4 Ways to Protect Yourself
Andru of GearLive wrote about 4 ways to protect yourself from smartphone theft, which goes over some of our most recommended tips on how to prevent mobile theft and secure your data: create a passcode for your device, turn on device tracking (but don’t be a vigilante and follow it yourself!), enable automatic backup of your data, and supercharge your security with Absolute LoJack
Be Mobile Theft Prepared with Absolute LoJack
As many of these bloggers have noted in their posts, mobile theft is not just about the loss of a device, it’s more about what’s on the phone. That data is sensitive, private and important. You need a way to protect it.
Absolute LoJack is the only device theft recovery and data protection software that comes with Absolute persistent technology and an Investigations Team with a proven record of recovering your devices for you. If your device is stolen, we’ll help get it back, while at the same time giving you a way to remotely delete your information to protect yourself. We even offer a guarantee.
Sorry bad guys, we have the best recovery rate in the business!