Here’s how you can protect phone data when it is lost or stolen

Here are a few steps by which you can protect data on your smartphone when it is lost or stolen:

protect phone data when it is lost or stolen (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

When travelling to a crowded place or in packed public transport, there is always fear of losing small things, including your mobile phone. It's disheartening when your phone is lost or stolen. All contacts, chats, messages, pictures are lost and you don't know what a person would do after stealing or finding it. There are also chances that someone may misuse the data in your phone.

The first thing that you should do is to register a complaint at the nearest police station and provide them with International Mobile Equipment Identity, or IMEI number, which will help track your phone.

Here are a few steps by which you can protect data on your smartphone when it is lost or stolen:

Apps: Google and Apple both offer apps to help you locate your smartphone. Android users can download "Find My Device" from Google Play Store while Apple users can track via "Find My."

Change password: Most users have apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and email address passwords auto-saved on their smartphones. Change passwords immediately after your phone is lost or stolen. Also, those having their bank account linked to online payment apps like Google Pay, Paytm, PayU must also immediately change passwords to prevent their money being deducted.

Keep phone password protected: Smartphones these days provide many security options such as fingerprint lock, Face ID, secret security pin, lock pattern, screen touch ID. Make sure the first thing that you do once you buy a smartphone is to turn on either of these security features. This will stop the person, who finds or steals your phone, from misusing your data.

App lock: With the advancement in technology, there is a feature called App Lock that enables you to lock protect all the applications on your phone locked. They can only be accessed with passwords, pattern, fingerprint of the phone owner.

Take back-up and clear data: There is no denying that our dependency on phones has increased multi-fold over the years. We have all the contacts, notes, chats and pictures saved on our phones. Make it a practice to back-up all data once a month or so and delete them from your smartphone. This will make sure there won't be regret of losing memorable moments captured on camera, important phone number when your phone is lost.

Double Encryption: The Encryption feature is used to secure data, and it is obvious that encrypting something twice would just enhance security. One of the most famous messaging apps, WhatsApp too uses double encryption for the benefit of its users.