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Stolen Phone Spy Mode

Your cellphone appears to be off, but is transmitting info about the thieves.
 
(+3, -3)
  [vote for,
against]

When your phone gets stolen, you activate the "phone stolen" mode which does the following.

1- Screen displays the "needs to be charged" icon, appears to be off but it's not.

2- "Camera on" indicator light is disconnected, but camera is activated remotely by you and law enforcement.

3- Tracker continues to show location.

4- All activity, audio, video and location is recorded and sent to law enforcement and phone owner.

5- At some point, the phone announces: "This is the police, we have tracked a stolen phone to this location. Please come to the door with your hands in plain site."

But seriously, I'm sure any big government type hearing about this would be foaming at the mouth trying to spy on all their political enemies, non compliant citizens etc so I'd probably rather just get a vintage flip phone myself. Wouldn't be shocked if they already had something like this in worker's paradises like China.

doctorremulac3, Oct 14 2023

What's currently available. https://www.aura.co...our-phone-is-stolen
Not much. [doctorremulac3, Oct 14 2023]

My attitude https://www.youtube...watch?v=IqF_A6bsyEw
[doctorremulac3, Oct 15 2023]


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Annotation:







       A1’s autobone I assume.
doctorremulac3, Oct 14 2023
  

       Ever watch Mark Rober go after porch pirates? Love him...
RayfordSteele, Oct 15 2023
  

       A1's autobone. ROTFL
pashute, Oct 15 2023
  

       If your phone is lost, the last thing you want to do is quickly drain the battery so it becomes completely unfindable.
21 Quest, Oct 15 2023
  

       Well give it a nuculear-powered backup battery or something. Could help with the explosion bit at the end.
pocmloc, Oct 15 2023
  

       //If your phone is lost, the last thing you want to do is quickly drain the battery so it becomes completely unfindable./:   

       This would all happen in a low power mode. For one thing the screen would be off and the bare minimum system’s necessary to turn it on remotely would would activate every 15 minutes for 20 seconds looking for the activation signal. This way the phone would be searchable for weeks.
doctorremulac3, Oct 15 2023
  

       Is the phone still capable as a phone after the thieving, and is still useful to the thieves? If not you will find your iPhone really quickly in the gutter somewhere, or not at all, having been stomped. It has to maintain some capabilities to be an effective tracking device. Ideally it will function normally for the thieves with the added security layer beavering away underneath. If it works throughout it will provide a wealth of knock-on info r.e. networks, photos, vids, call logs, etc. If it operates as in the current idea, it will end badly, with no benefit to the owner or the thieves. It can’t be off.
minoradjustments, Oct 15 2023
  

       Okay, good point. It will apparently be useable just needing a charge. That gives some time to find them in this mode, but if they charge it, it comes to life in stolen mode which includes the following:   

       1- No credit card information, bank accounts etc.   

       2- Several fake contacts are given, all numbers which go to a second number of the phone owner where they can leave incriminating messages.   

       3- Otherwise all pictures, links, history etc are fake as well.   

       I agree that it has to appear usable, so the "needs charge" mode would be the first ruse to getting all this done, but it's not critical. It can do all the spying stuff, camera light off, mic surreptitiously on, tracker being on even though phone's turned off.
doctorremulac3, Oct 15 2023
  

       So bone it right now to prove that first one wasn't yours.   

       Or bun, either one will do.
doctorremulac3, Oct 15 2023
  

       Mmm hmm.
doctorremulac3, Oct 15 2023
  

       I added a bone at 3.21pm gmt (which I will now remove) just to prove that the auto-boner is still out there - and it's not me for a start - I think the auto-boner should be hunted down by digital bloodhounds and when cornered, fed to the bedbugs that are currently eating France.
xenzag, Oct 15 2023
  

       Multiple accounts are against the rules by the way a1.   

       I have no idea how many ideas you have. The link shows my attitude.
doctorremulac3, Oct 15 2023
  

       So where is this rope everybody’s pissing up?
minoradjustments, Oct 16 2023
  

       Moving on.
doctorremulac3, Oct 16 2023
  

       French bedbugs are ready and waiting….
xenzag, Oct 16 2023
  

       The tricky bit is that this only works if the thieves don't know about it. To that end, this feature is only available to carefully screened people who have high incomes and, after investigation, are found to have a strong desire to catch petty thieves. These specialized phones will look like cheaper models that normally have very poor find-my-phone type features such that with a regular version, the thief can simply go through the factory-reset procedure and have a phone ready for resale. These special phones look just like those, but have high end hardware inside, giving these discerning customers the top of the line experience they pay for. Until the phone is unlocked via retinal scanner or whatever, the lock screen is displayed in low resolution with poor contrast to emulate the cheap phone it is modeled after. Tracking mode is initiated if the user "powers the phone off" or turns on "airplane mode" without first unlocking it, so tracking may start before the owner knows that it is stolen. No need to report a low battery. When the factory reset procedure is initiated, it only acts like it has been reset. The high end phone has plenty of power to emulate the low end phone performance while at the same time providing all the spying, tracking, etc. that could be desired. For legal reasons, the explosion option is NOT available! <small print> however "unscrupulous (but well screened) 3rd parties" sell accessory kits and downloadable apps that one might personally configure in ways deemed by some to be illegal. </small print>
scad mientist, Oct 18 2023
  

       Or maybe these already exist, but my income isn't high enough to qualify.
scad mientist, Oct 18 2023
  

       Hey thieves, now on sale: foil lined hand bags and Faraday glove boxes for phone disassembly. Tinfoil hat included as a free gift.
scad mientist, Oct 18 2023
  

       New upgrade: auto activation of ultrasonic spread spectrum mesh networking when sudden radio signal loss is detected.
scad mientist, Oct 18 2023
  

       //the thief can simply go through the factory-reset procedure and have a phone ready for resale.//   

       You know, I was thinking about that and next thing you know I had my tinfoil hat on again.   

       Seems to me like that would be the easiest thing to prevent, you have some system build into the phone, if not this, something else hard wired into the unit that makes it useless if it's stolen. Various ideas can be discussed but I don't think anybody would say it's a logical impossibility. The logical impossibility is that a phone could NEVER be hardwired to be unusable if it's stolen. Another step or two might be needed to sell them, but it's imminently doable.   

       Then I put my tinfoil hat on: Would this result in more or fewer phones being sold? I don't know how many phones are stolen but stolen phones result in new phones being purchased.   

       So while it might not result in a lot of sales, how much does a company knock itself out to make sure their client doesn't have to purchase a new product in case the old one was stolen? Might not even be a big number as much as the idea of the thing.   

       Eh, could be wrong but maybe not. Whenever I find the world, society, culture, industry and most especially politics to be confusing, I just repeat the magical mantra that brings enlightenment to all situations: "Follow the money".   

       Could be wrong, I was wrong once before. (I thought I was wrong about something and turns out I wasn't.)
doctorremulac3, Oct 18 2023
  

       I assume all phones are continuously recording to multiple databases, for advertising and other purposes.   

       Can crime be prevented with enough surveillance? Hmmm. [ ]
sninctown, Oct 20 2023
  

       Not going to own a phone that has a system to blow it up. I put it to my ear too often for that.
normzone, Oct 20 2023
  

       Okay, I'll take that part out. It was supposed to be a joke but I guess it was missing the funny part.
doctorremulac3, Dec 13 2023
  

       Looking at that link, I find it hard to believe they'd be stupid enough to leave out the core of this idea, which is weaponizing the phone against the perp. It's a tracking, monitoring, tracing and video / audio recording device in the hands of the criminal. You've basically got a robocop with a radio in the perp's pocket.   

       Again, I'll say I wouldn't be surprised if this was a feature for high security clearance folks that's just not talked about.
doctorremulac3, Dec 13 2023
  

       You're incredible. To think the idea is to "have spyware on a phone or computer", like that's never been done... I have no words.   

       Read the idea.
doctorremulac3, Dec 13 2023
  

       Good question, might wanna have that looked into.
doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023
  

       That was addressed, it appears to be fully functional but just in need of a charge which gives time to track it.   

       You really don’t read these or if you do, you don’t understand them.   

       //What am I missing here?// A chromosome? That would explain a lot.
doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023
  

       //You gave up on the explosives.//   

       You actually think that was serious even though I followed it with //But seriously,// (which is still there) so you missed that being a joke, okay, fine. But then you somehow decided that it announcing when the police where there because they had tracked down the phone and were there to make the arrest, that WAS a joke?   

       I could see the exploding part being taken seriously by somebody missing the "but seriously" but nobody with a functioning mind would think the announcing that the police were at the premises to make an arrest after it was tracked would be a joke. A joke would have some kind of a premise.   

       The point of the system is to find and arrest the thief, but somehow when the arrest is imminent it helping with that arrest is a joke? Incredible.   

       It's fine to not understand an idea, but don't obsess about it and devote your life to finding some way to save face by finding something else wrong with it. You did that before with another idea and got so frustrated you threw a tantrum erased your entire list of HB ideas so obviously you're not enjoying this constant obsessing about me any more than I am.   

       Just bone it and get on with your life, if you have one. It's the holidays, go to parties, hang out with family, go see christmas tree lights. Obsessing about somebody on some website is just sad. For instance, 77% of your annotations on this current HB page are on my posts. 77%. So you average 4.6 annotations on my posts but 2.1 on all the others, and that's not counting auto-bones. Sheesh. And you might have noticed I NEVER post annotations on your ideas. Never.   

       You're a smart enough guy, you can be smart without trying to make other people look stupid, which ironically, is stupid.   

       Let's start the new year by not doing this anymore okay? If you're at a party and you don't like someone, you mingle with the other guests, you don't follow that person around the whole night trying to interact. Like I've said so many times before, this is not a competition, you enjoy this site, I'll enjoy it too.   

       Deal? Deal. Have a virtual hand shake.   

       Let's make this new year a pleasant experience for everyone here at the HB. And happy holidays to you.
doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023
  

       Bah humbug
pocmloc, Dec 14 2023
  

       Yea, that works too. I'm flexible.
doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023
  

       I stand corrected, but notice how nice those two posts were.   

       That's my reaching out and saying "Let's all have fun here." which I still propose.   

       Have a great holiday season and happy new year. Let's hope the next year brings lots of interesting ideas, chats and even the occasional respectful disagreement, we are all human after all.   

       As far as I know. :)
doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2023
  

       Bah humbug
Voice, Dec 15 2023
  


 

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