Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

Is there a chip or device you can install at the hardware level that can achieve this? Or would software be the best way to go? because all the thief has to do is reflash, where as hardware it's always there working.

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

The reflash problem can be solved if Nokia install necessary applications inside flash! ;D

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

Anti theft Cell phone
Not as eligant a solution but funny all the same :)

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

I like this idea, although maybe it doesn't need to alert the user at all. How about an app that lets you decide what to do when a sim change is detected. It could be "do nothing", "report by email", "report by SMS" or "anti-theft mode".

The report should contain GPS location, new phone number, operator, IMEI, battery level.

If "anti theft mode" is chosen, then the report will be sent by email and SMS and a daemon will be started (and set to restart on boot) that does the following anti theft actions:

If possible, set the connect automatically option to "any connection" so that internet can be connected silently, if it's not already connected.
(Note: Report only if an internet connection is available, log to MyDocs and send log as/when internet becomes available)

- Report/log GPS every 15 minutes

- Report/log all SMS and Phone numbers

- Look for SMS from a defined number, or a particular code in the SMS (e.g. "You have won £1,532, claim now text 'winner' to 81223") if one is received, reply to SMS with GPS Data and battery level

- If the phone is active (not locked), take photos with the front cam when the user is typing on the keyboard and email them/upload them to a website. If the front cam has a shutter noise, turn it off first.

If you forget to switch it to "do nothing" before changing your sim legally, then you can just go into the app and turn off the tracking with a pin code.

Thanks to mikhmv for some ideas :)

Ben

PS Wouldn't it be great if this was part of the core code and the sim data was checksummed and saved hidden in MyDocs for comparison before/after flashing, so that even a reflash wouldn't stop this from working :) That sounds like an app that could work for OVI - you get charged when tracking is activated and OVI have a web interface that holds the reports, logs and photos for you (or the police) to access.

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

Haha, just got finished reading that story. Very interesting.

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

MyDocs even hidden will be visible if you will connect phone to computer. All data could be better to store in /opt because
1. it is more easy to hide (some where /opt/python/....)
2. it is pretty large (2 gb).
Regular user shouldn't find it....

Additionally if write program for thief-protection I think it is possible to ask Nokia to add it in flash immage....

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

I am searching a good theft protection solution for a couple of weeks but did not find a good one yet. I know there are web based commercial services which allow you for example to lock and trace the phone or delete/backup the data.
Sounds good to me, does anyone a specific site which supports the N900?

If not, we definitely need an application to protect our N900. I never had this much data and $ value in such a small device. Having my N900 stolen is like loosing my computer with lots of data, loosing my mobile with all the contacts/messages, loosing my note book with pictures,ideas; calendar entries...

"Backup all that data" you might say - its still sensitive data in the hands of the wrong person if your N900 is stolen.

IMO i find it much worse to loose tons of sensitive data than an N900. Dont get me wrong, i dont have the money to buy a new N900 too often :o

I just want to point out that gps location, alarm sound etc is a good feature but first of all i want to suck all my critical data out of the phone silently and then delete it on the phone.

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

Do you know how to realise this?
Thanks

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

I think most of you want to much from the application.

I found a while ago for s60 a very good software.

It was like this. as soon as a new sim card was inserted the program will send a text message to a predefined number(s) telling that. after that you had more options.

1. Kill, delete all the private data stored.
2. Send a text message and get a reply with the New Phone number, and the GPS coordinates.
3. Call and listen silently to the environment (without the other person knowing).

I this only the first 2 are really useful.

You don't need pictures with the owner, maybe only one the first time to recognize him in a public place. (but not necessary).

You don't want him to send you messages automatically every 15 minutes, because if you get at the last coordinates in 5 minutes, you have to wait 10 more for the next coordinate.

Also it would be nice to add a function when you text him to play a tune and freeze the touch (so that when you are close to him but there are too many people, it will make noise and the thief won't be able to stop it).

the rest is non sense.

And maybe if it has already a network connection to send the coordinates by mail (in case the thief has a prepaid in the phone with low credit).

there's no need for other stupid features, since they will only show to the thief that the phone as an anti-thief feature and will only determine him to try to see how to flash it ( supposing he doesn't know how).
and I think that if it's a good program nokia will include it in the next release since they already have something like this build in other phones (my e51 can be locked remotely and can have the data deleted remotely).

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

That's a great idea, it should turn the volume up too and override headphone detection :)

The other features are not needed so much for the anti-theft side of things, but useful if you have lost the phone, or left it at a friends house or something, but can't find it.

Automatic 15 minute updates to a web site (not by text) are useful if they are moving, so you can track where they are going/have been, but you should also as you say be able to text/access the device and get an instant response with GPS.

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

Hi, I have writen two applications (in Python) which will be used as a anti-theft solution for my N900.

The 1st is an application in the background which looks at sms messages my phone receives and if there is a specific command in it from a specific sender it will start the other Python application in the background which is sending the GPS coordinates, through gprs connection, to my website where the data is processed to a log file. The GPS data is then on my website, in combination with Google Maps, processed to nice pictures with the current tracking path of my 'stolen' N900. This made my N900 a moblie GPS tracker... It works great!

This is why the N900 is so great, a little mix of Python, Apache webserver, html coding & Google Maps makes it all possible...

It's also possible to send other information this way; battery life, movement (accelero meters), webcam picture etc.

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

this is an awesome app idea, would be perfect for the odd trip to the pub, I have done this before once and left my phone by mistake. Luckily for me the owner put my phone to one side but wht if he hadn't?

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

What if he swaps the simcard? :(

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

(added this bit in at the end ... sorry this is such a long thread but i got a bit carried away, i have read and reread this to ensure i dont ramble on about nothing and i think its all pretty clear so developers please please read through and if you created a program that could do something along these lines i would happily pay for it)

reading through this thread there are some brilliant idea's, I have lost phones in the past when at pubs/clubs/gigs etc etc and also had phones stolen, when I have tried to call the phone it has rang out, tried again - rang out tried again - turned off! obviously someone had the phone, saw me calling so turned it off and i never saw the phone again :(

... my thoughts are as follows:

The program would do the following:

SCENARIO 1 - THE THIEF/FINDER LEAVES THE PHONE ON WITH YOUR SIM CARD STILL IN IT
If you lose/have phone stolen you could send a text message to the phone from any other mobile phone with a set 'code' in it (eg. code is 175896) which would set off a trigger in the program, so you would send message saying something that would keep the phone holders intrest to prevent them from turning the phone off such as
**had a great night, when i get home i will send you a sexy picture message of me ;) - call me then on 01246175896***
Then the program secretly send gps co-ordinates via
1)text once a minute to the phone you text the code 175896 from
2)constantly to an internet map program such as google maps

From that information if you have someone sat in front of a computer or another decent web page accessible phone (like the n900) they/it can direct you via the map data that is being updated constantly so you can catch up with the person (or if the online map can store the route you could even track the n900 to a particular house it has been taken to and then call police and show them your evidence of how you know the phone is in a particular house)

SCENARIO 2 - THE THIEF/FINDER REPLACES THE SIM CARD WITH THEIR OWN
The program would detect a new sim has been inserted and instantly send just 1 secret text message to a pre-determined phone number, such as the wifes phone number with the following information
1) All SMS and Phone numbers contained in the new sim
2) The new inserted sims phone number

From the above information you could then do one of the following
1)Call the police and see if from the new inserted sims phone number they can request the owners details and trace your phone that way (IMO rubbish as this would take ages and probably wont succeed)
2) Call the new inserted sims phone number and blag the persons details from them by saying something like "you registered your mobile phone details with us a while ago and you have won one months free text messages" and try to get their name and address (if you are no good at blagging get someone to do it for you, i'm a salesman and i reckon i could get their details from them)
3) if the above fails then call the new inserted sims phone number and threaten them to give the phone back otherwise you will send a text message to all of the following numbers (at this stage read out all the phone numbers from his sim that you received such as mom on 07911111111, dad on 0792222222) with the text message saying something like
****my Nokia N900 was stolen 3 days ago by someone in the 02 academy nightclub in Birmingham, I know the person who stole its phone number, it is 07988888888 if you type that number into your phone and press the dial button you will see which one of your friends is a dirty rotton thief*****
4)some key phone numbers you receive will have family phone numbers such as 'Moms Mobile' 'Dads Mobile' which you could try calling and asking the thiefs mom or dad to help you get the phone back.

There are obviously other features that could be added to this scenario such as
pictures from front camera
gps information
but what about if the new sim doesnt have internet and they notice credit dissapearing every 15 minutes, they will then turn the phone off.

Perhaps when an internet connection is activated by the phone holder other info could be sent to you via internet (either wlan or mobile internet) in some way
wlan would enable you to get ip address :)

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

@AlexDT:

If it's swapped -after- I remotely activated the GPS tracker, I won't matter. If before, I'm having a big problem... :)

Personnaly I'm not really worried about theft, more of losing the Nokia in some way.

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

I've placed this in the Ideas for GSOC 2010, under the title MaeAgent
http://wiki.maemo.org/GSoC_2010/Project_ideas

Anybody interested to mentor?

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

i like this thread

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

I have also now created a website to track my n900 and if it gets lost/stolen I can tell it to do various things.

The tracking service is intended at this point for people interested in developing an application to use it, or people who are happy playing in scriptworld - I have included the scripts that I used to get it working and that run on my n900 now :)

See http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=627494 for details.

Cheers,

Ben

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

very good tool.
Could be added in the OVI store !

One cool option would be in case of theft to protect personal data :
providing a public key to the server when you detect your phone is stolen makes the phone to encrypt all personnal data with it.
You will be able to uncrypt it if your phone gets back with the private key (you never gave to anyone even the website).

Also, uploading your encrypted personnal data to the net to recover them would be nice.

I would pay for such an app !!!

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

Please execute the idea. I'll definitely pay for app like this.

Better run it stealth mode, i.e. the thief is not aware of its existence; and can be managed remotely.

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

Great project! Please go on!

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

The only thing I need to prevent theft is me. Check my picture, that's what happens if you try to take my N900. I love this phone I will go Rambo to get it back.

Joke aside. Great idea, but what if you disable the 2G/3G radio as a way to connect to the internet? (sorry if this was asked earlier in the thread)

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

I guess if you will backup data you will not need to recover. You will need just erase data from phone.....

If you familiar with linux try to use BackupPC server. It is great solution. It is making backup my phone once per day. If you will need extra backup you can run it manually.....
Automatic daily backup take around 1 minute. And all your data available on-line....

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

Hello everyone. I have created a new thread about this, and I would greatly appreciate any help and suggestions. Please check out The N900 Anti-theft Project
Thanks :)

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

check this out: https://garage.maemo.org/projects/athief

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

what does it do ?
any description ?

Re: Anti-theft solution?
 

It's a python script.
1. Open this script, set your phone number in variable (my_number)
2. Run this script once, you'll get your imsi code in message
3. Open script again set the IMSI code in (my_imsi)
4. Change the variable (my_number), set the number where to send the message if phone is stollen.
5. Edit the crontab and set desired period to run this script.

Also you can read a comments in the script configure it freely and also can change it to.
If you have any ideas tell me or join to my project. ;)

You'll agree with me: The thief in many cases has no tech knowledge. So after stealing your phone he will change the SIM card, so when when phone is on this script will check the IMSI that in script with IMSI of current SIM card. If IMSI in script does not equal with IMSI of current SIM card it will send a message to number which you set in the script (my_number - variable) in given periods (crontab)
In my country (Azerbaijan) it's easy to find the stollen phone if you know the phone number and / or IMSI code. Thiefs in Azerbaijan has no tech abilities. If he would be a "techman" he wouldn't steal my phone. :)