I moved over from iOS where if your phone gets stolen but you have iCloud enabled there's basically no way for them to get into your phone or wipe it and use it themselves as long as they can't guess your password/fingerprint. Is Android Pie/the S10 as secure in that regard?
Posted Mar 11, 2019, 8:12 PM UTC
If you don't remove your google account before doing a factory reset on a newer android phone, it is very difficult or maybe even impossible to use without the password for that google account. Removing the google account also requires the password for that account.
https://www.google.com/android/find?u=0
You can use this to locate your phone, lock it, or erase it remotely.
Pretty sure you only have an issue if you reset your phone through the recovery menu before boot up and not through the settings when you're logged in to the phone.
It has to do with the "factory reset protection".
I'm pretty sure you can't factory reset the phone from UI without the original owner's google account information. You can do it from recovery, but that's when you run into the factory reset protection on starting up the phone. I accidentally did this with a nexus 5x that I was trying to use for a car media device. I was unable to use the thing for like a week while I dug around trying to find the password for the google account that it was locked to.
Settings > Security > Find my mobile.
Ios devices still get stolen for parts.
There definitely is with an iPhone. You can put the phone in recovery mode and reset the firmware which basically wipes the device.
But to answer your question, yeah I think your phone can be wiped and used by a new person if lost.
Damn. But there isn't a way to access your data right? They'd have to start fresh on your wiped device?
Correct. But you can also opt for your entire phone to be encrypted if you'd like the extra security.
Device storage is encrypted by default.
And if "Find my iPhone" is enabled, there's no way anyone can use it unless they are able to enter your iCloud credentials after the wipe process is complete.
Keep in mind that if you're concerned about privacy on your phone Samsung does include their Knox software.
Basically it allows you to hide files and duplicate versions of apps behind an encrypted security barrier. Until you authenticate then nothing stored or installed in the Secure Folder is visible to the rest of the phone.
It'll still be iCloud locked if you wipe it.
Not if you do it from DFU mode and you don't connect to a network until after the phone is completely reset, right?
No, once icloud and find my iPhone is enabled. It'll ask you to login with that apple id no matter what you try to do.