This is how Android recognizes (and automatically blocks) the stolen phone

Mobile devices are custodians of everything that concerns us. Not only telephone numbers or email addresses but also photographs, calendars and diaries, applications of various kinds in which we store personal or professional data. For …

This is how Android recognizes (and automatically blocks) the stolen phone

Mobile devices are custodians of everything that concerns us. Not only telephone numbers or email addresses but also photographs, calendars and diaries, applications of various kinds in which we store personal or professional data.

For this reason, Android 15 will implement a function capable of detecting the smartphone theft and to block it, thus achieving a dual objective: discouraging the theft of devices and protecting user privacy, now exposed to ever-increasing risks.

How Android theft detection works

The system is called Theft detection lock and it is trained using algorithms that can detect sudden changes that can suggest that the device is in hands other than those of the rightful owner. These behaviors include both the movements detected when using the smartphone and the way in which it is positioned.

Accelerometer and gyroscope therefore play a role fundamental task in collecting the data necessary to trigger the blocking of the device.

Google has studied the methods by which thieves take possession of mobile devices and, generally, after grabbing one they start running: detecting these movements and labeling them as suspicious is the first clue which leads the Artificial Intelligence to evaluate the hypothesis that there has been a theft.

Nonetheless, since thieves tend to disconnect smartphones from cellular networks to prevent them from giving indications about their GPS position, the function Offline device lock introduced by Google locks the device screen when offline for an unusually long period of time.

The issue of smartphone theft

The discussion is complex but can be summarized in a few fundamental points: it would be advisable to use the Cloud so that the device (this also applies to personal computers) is free of data. Anyone who were to steal it, without the appropriate access credentials, would have a device in their hands practically a virgin. Above all, the legitimate owners can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they can recover their data without too many worries, without prejudice to the fact that suffering a theft still remains an unwanted and shocking event.

In the case of mobile devices, however, you also need to protect them the applications and this is why Google is introducing functions specifically designed to secure data.

One of these, called Private space, requires the use of additional authentication data to access some apps – especially banking ones – and some operating system functions such as, for example, the location service or the Thef detection lock system itself. It will therefore be necessary to access it using a pin, any passwords and, in addition, biometric credentials (fingerprints or face recognition).

Thieves tend to resell stolen devices and, for this very reason, Google is introducing a feature that prevents reconfigure smartphones after returning them to factory conditions (unless you know all the access data).

Some of these functions could also be extended to devices with Android versions on board precedents at 15.