Android's new anti-theft features

funn@lemy.lol to Technology@lemmy.world – 73 points –
Android’s theft protection features keep your device and data safe
blog.google
23

Theft Detection Lock is a powerful new feature that uses Google AI to sense if someone snatches your phone from your hand

What could possibly go wrong...

What are you aiming it? If it’s a false alarm, just unlock your phone again.

also don't see how you could trigger it assuming it expects a very specific movement pattern that includes a sudden movement.
maybe by dropping your phone but that doesn't happen that often and having to unlock your phone again is the least of your concerns in that case

Yeah, I'm worried if I have a sudden shift in my fetish preferences, this thing might get triggered.

How about putting all app data in storage0 so it can be easily backed up. The thing I care about most if my phone is stolen is being able to build a new one and not have to spend the next day reconfiguring every damned app.

well the whole point of android is to isolate data between apps. that includes your file explorer app.
still crazy how there's no way to do unencrypted backups from data partition anymore though. the adb backups are deprecated and even though the command still exists it seems broken on android 13 and 14

You can backup Android completely but only certain manufacturers allow it. Like Samsung & pixel has it

So if I factory reset, and want to NOT use my current Google login, I can't? It will only accept the previous login?

What if I want to sell the phone?

Did I read that part correctly?

you have to sign out of your account before resetting the phone in order to prevent tripping the protection.
in case you trip it, you need to enter your credentials, your phone will reboot and do another wipe stage and then will jump right back to the OOBE, fully unlocked.
iirc the account is not actually saved, just verified

I am assuming its the same with Apple and as long as you sign out of your google account before wiping, it is no longer linked to you. Hopefully it will prompt you to do so when wiping the device locally.

This will be so useless, it will be triggered so often by parents snatching phones from teenagers and become an annoyance.

Seems like it will fulfill its purpose then - to protect said teenager's data.

Not the teenager's phone. The parents paid for it... and continue to pay for it through the subscription of cellular service. Unfortunately any attempt to keep the parent out would be accurately described as theft or destruction of property.

I think if parents need that much control then Android has features for parental control. I think 🤔, it's admin mode or something

No. Android doesn't. Google does. But not everyone wants to have anything to do with Google. Some OEMs do, like Samsung. But it's not in AOSP or basic Android feature. But my point wasn't to spy on the kid. It was device ownership.

Edit: Even this gets downvoted. You guys are fucking lunatics. A Child... using a phone given to them, can't even consent to the shit Google does to you legally. But you want their data "protected" from their parents so that a parent can't at least enforce decent digital hygiene. Ya'll fucking dumb. Your kids are going to do dumb shit and you want the parents who are supposed to be responsible for raising the kid to have no power to actually raise them even though it's literally the parents device.

Well, by that logic the parents can do whatever they want with the phone, yes, including stopping cellular service or resetting it entirely. But the OS would still protect the teenager's data from unauthorized access.

The private space sounds interesting. I wonder how it works in practice. Can any app be stored there?

Sounds like a work profile, so you could probably simulate it already with something like Island. Although I can't remember if it also has a PIN feature.

If you have a Samsung phone you can try something similar now called secure folder. Search in your options to create. Then you can install apps in there and all the apps and data are sandboxed from the rest of your phone. You can't access the data from the main phone and apps in the secure folder don't have access to your main phone.

I have one setup for my banking app and other apps I would prefer to be private. Have to enter a password to get access to that area and it is encrypted when locked. It works real well.