Protect Your Phone With Android’s Theft Detection Features

Enable these three anti-theft features on your Android phone right now. They’ll keep your sensitive info private if attackers steal your device while it’s unlocked.

After Google’s beta test in Brazil, the initial suite of theft protection features for Android smartphones is now widely available—but you have to opt in.

Why isn’t the company automatically adding the protections to every compatible device? Insight from the Brazil beta test helped developers at the company make this decision. “We learned that users behaved very differently in metropolitan areas and in rural areas,” says Jianing Sandra Guo, an Android security and privacy product manager at Google. She doesn’t want to add unnecessary friction for users who aren’t as interested in the anti-theft software.

Three features many Android owners can activate now are Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock, and Remote Lock. Curious ...