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To take advantage of this, you need to install a special free app that we’ll describe below, which works together with a free service that you can use to locate or erase the phone once it’s gone.įor the app to be useful, the phone must be turned on and have a cellular or Wi-Fi connection. The same GPS and network connections that help your phone find the best nearby restaurants and the fastest way home can help you find and protect that phone should it go missing. If your phone provides this option, activate it. Password protection comes with another safeguard: After several unsuccessful tries to enter a passcode, typically 10, some phones will automatically erase all of your personal data. (Even with Touch ID enabled, you should still use a strong passcode.) We were able to go from a sleeping screen to the desktop in about a second. The iPhone 5S's Touch ID fingerprint reader, built into its Home button, is designed to do away with this drudgery. While typing a nontrivial password may feel cumbersome at first, it should get much easier with practice. For instance, Fred1969 is a weak password, but F!ed9691 could be much harder to crack. Skip the easy 4-digit PIN and instead create a strong password that contains a string of at least 8 characters that include some combination of letters, numbers, and special characters that don't form recognizable words or phrases-especially those that could be associated with you. This is your first and strongest line of defense.