But what would you do?

Many of us have smartphones these days that hold substantial quantities and varieties of data. What happens to that data and how you replace it are two key questions to consider in the event that a mobile telephone is lost.

If you haven’t thought about it much before, why not take a few moments to consider the factors involved and any changes you might want to make to help minimize the stress from such an event.

What’s the problem?

There are really three basic areas of concern when you lose a portable phone:

• Someone else can make calls on your phone and bill them to you.
• You just lost all of your pictures, contacts, and text messages.
• Some bad dude has access to all of your pictures, contacts, and text messages.

Problem 1: Some Bad Dude has your Telephone
Most people take care of the first problem right away, and you should do so as well.

Take Immediate Action
You must contact your provider ASAP and let them know your phone was lost before some ne’er-do-well starts dialing up 900 numbers or making overseas calls to some see-no-evil third-world country that gladly charges you thousands of dollars per minute.

Even if you don’t have the provider’s number with you, it’s important enough to make a dash for the nearest computer to do a quick Google search. Call them up; it should be sufficient to give your name and mobile number.

Once you have reported the phone as lost or stolen, make sure you change the passwords for any email accounts you had configured on your phone. This will shut off any routes open to bad guys to send messages in your name.

Take Preventative Measures
There are a few measures that you can take up front while you still have your phone. Note that these all fall under the category of “closing the barn door after the animals have left,” so you want to do them before you lose your phone.

You can minimize the risk of costly bills ahead of time by asking your provider to block 900 number service and block overseas calls. Of course, when you are packing for your trip to Paris, you might want to call your cellular provider to let them know so that you don’t block yourself. 

In addition, many phones come with a “lock” option, where a PIN is required to unlock the device. I wouldn’t trust my Swiss bank account number to such a PIN, as there have been known bugs in these, but it’s better than nothing.

There exists a class of utilities for smartphones that allow you to remotely lock and erase your device. I used one of these utilities for a while when I was a Treo user, but it always seemed a little too quirky to depend on as my only defense.

You might consider handset insurance from your provider—for a few bucks a month, you can have your handset replaced if it is lost, stolen, or destroyed. Make sure you read the restrictions first!

Problem 2: You lost your Data
Have you ever considered what kind of data you would lose if the phone were lost?

Here’s a short list of possibilities:

• All of your contacts
• Pictures you took with the camera
• Calendar events
• Text messages
• Email messages
• Music
• Software
• Special notes (A shopping list? A list of passwords?)

Synchronize with your Desktop
Many phones come with desktop synchronization software that can be used to protect you to some extent. For example, the iPhone synchronizes with iTunes whenever you plug it in, and in the process the contacts and photos are copied between desktop and phone (only if you have this enabled, of course).

This kind of synchronization is pretty good, but it is implemented imperfectly for many devices, and it does you no good if the only time you synchronized was when you bought the phone.

Worse still, many phones don’t provide software data utilities out of the box. When my wife purchased a Motorola Razr 2, I was disappointed to find out that Motorola phones require a software package called Motorola Phone Tools which costs $35.

Take some moments and consider how many contacts you carry with you on your telephone. If it is a couple dozen, you can probably just keep a list on your desktop machine and keep them both up to date.
But once you get into the realm of hundreds of contacts, you have no choice: to avoid a catastrophic loss of your social sphere, you had better back up that list somewhere.

Consider the impact of losing Text messages and Email
Think about the text messages and email on your phone: would you shed a tear if you lost these? I couldn’t care a lick about losing old text messages, since I use SMS strictly for need-to-know-now information that loses relevance quickly. I imagine that folks who buy the “unlimited text message” option may have some special ones that they don’t want to lose.

With a bit of luck, and planning, you might be able to keep from losing important emails. One option is to use the mobile web versions of various online email services to handle your mail. This way, you never have any messages on your device.

I like Gmail because they offer a free service called IMAP email, where your emails are retained on their servers and your device simply shows what is available on the servers, kind of like webmail, but nicer.

Get to know what your device supports and what services are out there.

Google Sync to the Rescue!
For the smartphone set, Google recently introduced a great calendar/contact syncing service, where you can set your phone to connect to your Google Calendars via a new tool called Google Sync for your Mobile Phone.

The screenshot on the right shows the phones that they support as of the time of this writing.

By using Google Sync, you can manage your contacts online or on your phone, and the changes are immediately mirrored.

Problem 3: Bad Dudes have your Data
I don’t even want to consider the possibility of some creepy dude sifting through my contacts, looking at the pictures that I have carefully added, choosing people to stalk, and then going to their homes to slit their throats in their sleep.

Wow, what a horrible thought!

The reality is, that’s probably not going to happen. The odds of your lost or stolen phone ending up in the hands of a serial killer are in your favor.

But a thief sure can have fun with your data!

• Do you keep any of your sensitive personal data in notes?
• Perhaps you have one note where you keep passwords for your online banking site?
• Can a villain gain anything by sending text messages in your name?
• Are your email messages all locally stored on the phone?

Protect your Secrets
If you are like me, you have tons of passwords and secret things that you can’t possibly remember. In my opinion, one of the essential applications for a portable device is a Password Manager application.

These applications provide a simple list of sites and passwords, protected by strong encryption. You provide a single main password to access the data within.

I have used two, and they are both excellent applications: SplashID and 1Password. There are others out there.

Recognize the Danger of Email in Enemy Hands
If you used the same email account for registering for any online services, then it is paramount that you prevent the bad guys from accessing your email. All a thief has to do is go to your online shopping sites and say “I forgot my password” and they will kindly send the password to the phone, in the hands of the enemy.

You would think that as soon as your provider blacklists the phone, nobody should be able to use its email; however, if your phone is Wi-Fi enabled, or if someone slips in a different SIM card, it is conceivable that the email client of the phone can still access your email service. 

Use IMAP Email or Webmail
If you use IMAP access to your email and contacts, such as with the Gmail IMAP and Google Sync options discussed earlier, you can very easily limit the access anyone has to existing data by changing your email password. Once your Gmail password has been changed, your purloined device will no longer be able to access your email.

It goes without saying that if you are using webmail alone, as soon as you change the email password, the bad guys have zero access to your existing email, but you most likely still have contacts on your phone.

It’s worth experimenting a little to see exactly what the “user experience” would be for a thief if you were to change your password.

Summary
Losing a cellular phone can possibly be an expensive proposition, especially if you are not aware of the factors involved.

Ask yourself “What could I lose without being sad about it?”

Ask yourself “What is the worst thing somebody could accomplish with my data?”

Weigh the risks carefully and take any action that you feel is sufficient, and sustainable, on your part.