Product: Cell Phone: Accessory
Lockable SD Card   (0)  [vote for, against]
Just like a SIM lock, but for an SD card

Cellphones are wonderful devices, and these days there are many new features to improve the security of your mobile device. Current security features I know of include adding a passcode to the SIM card to prevent unauthorized access to the contact information and a finger gesture combo lock (built into the phone, not the SIM) for touchscreens, and an app that activates the GPS and send the phone's location on a Google Map to a predetermined email if somebody replaces the SIM or if the owner sends a coded SMS to it. You can even lock some phones with a coded SMS.

What I have not seen is something that is much more important than protecting the phone numbers on the SIM card or stored in the phone's memory. What I've not seen, and I Googled, is a way to prevent unauthorized access to the photographs and files stored on the SD memory card that most phones these days come with. Such files are often vastly more sensitive than a few names and phone numbers. So why isn't there an option to add a passcode to access the SD card's contents? If you can do it for a 32Kb SIM card, surely you can do it for a 16 Gb SD card.

So there's my idea. An SD card that can be passcode-protected.
-- 21 Quest, Jul 11 2009

Windows/Software solution: encrypt http://www.aikosolu...da-card-encryption/
One of many similar applications. [jutta, Jul 11 2009]

Certgate Smartcard http://www.certgate...s/Cg_Protector.html
This is relatively recent. There's a crypto processor on the SD card itself, which I think is closer to what you are looking for. [jutta, Jul 11 2009]

That second one is close... but costs $125.00, only comes in 1 GB, and geared almost exclusively toward business users. My idea is much simpler, as it only requires adding the same passcode protection currently used in SIM cards. The first one might Bake it, though...
-- 21 Quest, Jul 11 2009


for those of us that aren't concerned, can we get one without that option ?
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 11 2009


Of course, FT. You don't have to set a passcode on a SIM card. It's an option that you can choose to use, or choose not. You can, of course, choose a regular SD card without the lock feature, as well, because this would simply a different model. Just like some cellphones have a camera-free version available upon request.
-- 21 Quest, Jul 12 2009



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