Take a ‘Theftie’ with LookOut, The App that Captures Your Phone Thief

Nothing beats the hopelessness that one feels when your phone gets stolen. The entire process of involving Zambia Police, getting a court warrant and getting tracking information from your mobile operator. Just the thought of the many lost contacts.  That’s where mobile security apps like Lookout come in.

Where do you get the app? So the app is available from the various app stores for free and all you have to do to set it up is register with your email and then set a personalised password. You can backup your data and manage your devices from anywhere in the world you are. When the thief removes your SIM card, enters a wrong phone password or tries to turn off your phone, the camera of the phone which has Lookout installed takes a picture of (hopefully) the culprit immediately and sends it together with the location of the device to your registered email address so you can locate it easily and have a photo( mugshot) of the criminal to go with it, called a ‘theftie’. By the way, your phone has to have a front facing camera in the first place.

However, the service will cost you about 30 bucks ( almost K270) per year  for the LookOut Premium version and it works best for Android devices because on iDevices, the “theftie” facility is not supported but it will still give you the GPS location of your stolen device via email. For Apple products, you might as well just use the Find My Phone service which is similar (and cheaper). From customer reviews on the Google Play Store website, the app drains phone batteries fast,  which is the opposite of what any smartphone owner needs for their day to day life, even if the app will save them when their dear sweet phone gets stolen. So what options are there, to avoid being carried away with the hype of this new app? For Android users, makes sure you set up your Android Device Manager or install free security apps like avast! Mobile Security.

Image Credit: Lookout