I don't want to say this is the solution for all the problems:
As cool as all the solutions sound, we have to think of some
problems/implications:
1) What happens if the sim gets changed?
It continue to run, because the program is not sim related. Whe it see a
tcp/ip connection it send a data packet to openmoko serve.
The sim credential is used only to identify who use the phone.
2) What happens if the phone gets flashed?
To this, I think we can do nothing. I hope it is sold without to be
flashed. Freerunner is not a so common phone for now.
3) What's with my data (stored e-mail passwords, wifi-passwods, web
history, session cookies, e-mails, and so on)?
Is possible to implement a system to get all these data to the server
(one time it is allarmed) and to delete the phone copy.
4) What if I only loose the phone?
You can access to openmoko server without make a stealt alarm, but only
a lose allarm
5) What if I lend the phone to a friend? Do I have to follow a
two-hour setup procedure to avoid my phone calling the police?
Is forbidden to call policy with an automatic system
There are many solutions, but each one has it's flaws. The idea that
the phone reports back in some way is pretty cool: at each sim change,
send an sms to a preconfigured number, saying "Hi, i'm name, this is
my new number". A good utility for keeping your buddies up to date,
and for having always the newest number. another good idea is to have
configure the phone to play some sort of alarm and encrypt the files
(but still allowing access to the phone, so that the thief keeps on
using it) when it's more then.. 2 meters away from a configured
bluetooth device (your headset/bluetooth keyboard/whatever). An
intresting idea is to trace the gps position each minute, store them,
and send a log per e-mail as soon as a connection is possible (open
wifi, gprs, logged in into wifi, ..). Also a program that sends to all
bluetooth devices it reaches wich accept it something like "Help Me!
I'm a stolen phone. I belong to $name, $adress. My actual phone number
is $number, please contact the police". One out of many people maybe
will contact the police. Also the client/server setup is an intresting
idea, allowing one to install its own server, and sending coordinates
and phone number in periodical intervals. Maybe one could even make a
buisness providing this client/server setup.
And if the card is taken out, and the phone flashed? Well.. if the
phone is already shut down, you've lost your phone. The only
possibility would be to have some sort of trackback of the serial
numbers of all flashed devices.. but the security and privacy
implications of this would be too great..
Just my two cents
Yes, I think your ideas are good!
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