Email

Protect your phone using GPS
By Jackie Gately

When your cell phone goes missing, it’s easy to panic. Your lifeline to social and professional communications—contact lists, photos, ring tones, text messages, voice, email and web access—are all lost in an instant.

If you retrace your steps and rethink your interactions, you may be lucky: perhaps the phone has fallen by the nightstand or waits at a checkout counter. Other times, though, recovery is not so simple.

One woman was dismayed when she called her new iPhone to learn that it had been stolen. The thief had the audacity to answer; but he wasn’t giving it back. Her options to catch the thief and retrieve her cell phone were limited. She could:

• Call the phone repeatedly throughout the day to locate it by sound
• Leave messages for the thief, assuming he can access them
• Text message the thief with a reward sum for the phone’s return
• Deactivate the phone; have the phone company call on reactivation attempts
• Look for surveillance cameras in the crime area for clues
• Obtain phone records of calls made or received since the theft; make contact to determine the thief’s identity
• File a theft report to retrieve the phone and get phone company cooperation

A quicker and easier route to recovery would have been using GPS technology. All cell phones manufactured after 2005 require GPS capability to support Enhanced 911 (E911), which allows a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to pinpoint your exact location within a few meters.

However, just because your cell phone has GPS capability doesn’t mean it can be easily located — unless you had the foresight to sign-up for web-based mobile phone tracking software, such as NavIQ Mobile.

Web-based tracking software, like NavIQ Mobile, allows you to track a mobile device using animated pans, 3D perspective zooms, and fly-over routing. It provides live and historical data, including location, to help you locate your equipment or work with authorities to intercept it if stolen.

It requires only a quick software installation to your existing Blackberry or Windows-based phone. There is no need for additional hardware.

Whether you’re tired of searching for an often misplaced phone or want to preempt a potential thief, web-based phone tracking software may provide the solution you need. It offers peace of mind that your prized possession is never more than a few clicks away.

Jackie Gately is a freelance writer. She can be reached at jackiegately.wordpress.com or located by GPS.