Best Anti-Theft App for Nexus 4

[blitz118]

Is there one with auto gps enable without rooting?

Cerberus does not need gps enabled to track your phone.

 

[russd1979]

No it doesn't need GPS... but it won't survive a factory reset unless its installed as a system app on a rooted phone.

 

[Fairclough]

Ok because the ones I had before tracked it to within 70m without GPS just off the phone being on. One good thing about htc sense apparently it had remote tracking pre built in.

 

[ChromeJob]

Why would you want to disable a factory reset?

1. Thief steals phone.
2. Thief resets phone.
3. Anti theft app gone.

 

[raazman]

1. Thief steals phone.
2. Thief resets phone.
3. Anti theft app gone.

Cerberus can be installed as an embedded app so even on a reset, Cerberus still runs.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[russd1979]

Cerberus can be installed as an embedded app so even on a reset, Cerberus still runs.

Only on rooted phones

 

[ChromeJob]

Cerberus can be installed as an embedded app so even on a reset, Cerberus still runs.

But that requires root, n'est-ce pas? I was explaining that on a non-rooted, stock phone with Cerberus installed, the thief could reset the phone and Cerberus is out of the picture.

But for some of us, the loss of data (uncontrolled disclosure) is more significant than the lost of the device. If they flash the device and wipe data, it's just an insurance issue. For this reason I'm rather happier having a handset without microSDHC card.

 

[mattatwar1]

I would say Cerberus

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[badbrad17]

I think that there is a simple solution. A general feature that requires you to login to your Gmail account whenever you want to do a factory reset. This way it would not be possible for someone to do a factory reset.

The only issue is that there would need to be an option if you forgot your password. You would need to have a second email account either via Gmail or Hotmail that was not active on your phone. That way if you needed to do a password reset it could be sent to the secondary account. I know Gmail and Hotmail work this way if you forget your password.

Just a thought.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Android Central Forums

 

[badbrad17]

And we come almost full circle...

"Like full device backup, lost phone tracking/security needs to be built into the core of Android. Until it is, it will only allow you to recover your phone from idiots."

Okay I put Android lost onto my un-rooted transformer Prime and I was able to locate it via gps without rooting. I just sent the command and it sent me the location in Google maps.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Android Central Forums

 

[russd1979]

Brad - was that using your S2 or HTC Desire? I have a Desire and it works but that's running Android 2.2. Apparently 2.3+ disables the remote GPS from what I have read.

 

[badbrad17]

It was using my Transformer Prime. my SGS2 is rooted. It may be different on phones compared to the tablet, but it worked and it's running Jellybean

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Android Central Forums

 

[badbrad17]

But your prime has wifi, right. And no cell radio? That means it can get located from wifi even if GPS is off.

What requires rooting is the ability to turn wifi or GPS on from SMS if the thief has turned it off. Permissions don't exist for this for third party apps as of 2.3.3.

Okay. Makes sense. Thanks for clarification.

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