An insurance company publishes its report on successful stolen or lost device recovery research

An insurance company publishes its report on successful stolen or lost device recovery research

Holidays may be as likely to be intertwined with worries about how to hang on to important possessions as they are with chances for fun activities. The loss or theft of a smartphone may indeed be one of the greatest risks in going to any popular destination these days. Accordingly, the device insurers Asurion has conducted a study on the best ways of recovering a lost device while on a break somewhere.

An insurance company publishes its report on successful stolen or lost device recovery research

This research was based on responses to a random double-opt in online survey of 1,759 U.S. adult smartphone owners, conducted in June 2018. The analysis of this data reportedly resulted in the main finding that phone recovery was 3 times more likely if the lockscreen of the phone in question showed a relevant contact number. Therefore, Asurion now recommends the creation of an Instagram story that integrates this information, then setting the same as your lockscreen wallpaper while on holiday. This is possible on both iOS and Android.

That seems like a solid piece of advice; apparently, less than 1 in 4 US device users do this while on holiday, although 71% of the same group do use lockscreen codes, patterns or biometric security. On the other hand, if your phone is taken by a malicious third party while in this state, they will gain your personal information at the same time.

The Asurion report also recommended using a light cross-platform app such as Opera Mini so as to have easy access to your information and settings in the event of a lost or stolen phone. The company also advises the use of public WiFi on holiday in order to avoid roaming/out-of-tariff data charges; however, it omitted the equally valid practice of VPN use while doing so.

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