Trusted devices

tatootie67

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Oct 26, 2012
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Hey everyone. Wondering what you might be thinking about the following issue I've discovered.

I have my gear S3 watch set up as a trusted device, so my watch bypasses the lock on my phone. My S3, when I first turn it on, always requires a pin to unlock the watch. Perfect so far.

My issue is that if Bluetooth is already on, on the phone, and I don't enter my pin on the watch , my phone becomes unlocked as soon as it connects. That's not good because if anyone got a hold of my watch and just turned it on, they would have access to my phone. Seems to me it should require my watch pin first, then enable the trusted device. That, or don't allow a phone connection before the watch pin is connected.

What do you all think?
 

N4Newbie

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Nov 15, 2012
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I think you make a good point but, unfortunately, that's not the way it works.

It's been a while since I owned a smartwatch (tried an LG Watch Urbane for a few months; didn't see the need), but my recollection is that no watch out there even does the pin code security thing; at best (and I'm wondering if this is the case with your S3?), the LTE-capable watches can do SIM Locking to prevent phone calls.

Anyway, my thinking is that the Android OS Trusted Devices function just wasn't designed for the level of security you are looking for. You could apply the same thinking to your car - if you set up your car as a trusted device, all someone needs to do is get a hold of your phone and your car keys and bring the phone to your car... Is that really any different than getting a hold of your phone and your watch?

Or, setting your home or office as a trusted location?

As for me, I use none of the "trusted" options as I find them either unreliable (Location, specifically - sometimes it leaves the phone unlocked when it shouldn't and other times it refuses to unlock when it should) or too dangerous, as above.

I can unlock my phone (Google Pixel 2 XL and Pixel XL prior to that) in a split-second using the fingerprint sensor. That's good enough for me.
 

con5150

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Jan 20, 2011
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Hey everyone. Wondering what you might be thinking about the following issue I've discovered.

I have my gear S3 watch set up as a trusted device, so my watch bypasses the lock on my phone. My S3, when I first turn it on, always requires a pin to unlock the watch. Perfect so far.

My issue is that if Bluetooth is already on, on the phone, and I don't enter my pin on the watch , my phone becomes unlocked as soon as it connects. That's not good because if anyone got a hold of my watch and just turned it on, they would have access to my phone. Seems to me it should require my watch pin first, then enable the trusted device. That, or don't allow a phone connection before the watch pin is connected.

What do you all think?

I had a thread similar, I couldn't figure out why phone wasn't asking for bio security I had set up, doh , dawned on my it was precisely because I had my S3 as a trusted device.... Like you I thought this isn't good, I had to take the S3 off trusted device list ....
 

tatootie67

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Oct 26, 2012
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You all make good points. I think I was too into thinking about security in tandem with trusted devices but clearly it's not. It's more of a convenience for the user. My hopes are that maybe in the future they could add a trusted device prompt on your phone (with the option to turn the prompt off or on) to allow or disallow the connection. That would eliminate any unauthorized users.
 

digitalbreak

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As others have already pointed out, trusted devices is more of a convenience than a security feature. The only place I use it to have my phone stay unlocked when connected to my car Bluetooth. Even then, I rarely use the phone while driving and use “Ok Google” most of the time and have set up Trusted Voice for it to unlock the phone.
 

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