We know how stealing a phone has become a lot more difficult that it was 10 years ago. The reason is multiple security features which allows owners to track down their devices and also allows remotely sending of commands like locking or data-wiping.
One of the companies which have focused mostly on a lot of anti-theft technology is Apple. The Find My iPhone feature for instance, is now being widely adopted on a variety of phones, and it looks like Microsoft is now planning to bring in the something similar on the lines of Find My iPhone feature.
This news comes after a patent was discovered recently by MSPU which indicated that Microsoft wants to equip Windows 10 devices, such as laptop, with a technology which would allow an owner to find them even when an internet connection is not available.
The feature is most likely aimed at cellular laptops which are always connected. Basically, it will support any device with LTE support. Microsoft explains in the patent:
“At least some embodiments described herein relate to the restricted use of a cellular network to facilitate disablement of a device that is suspected lost or stolen. Accordingly, even if the device is not capable of general use of the cellular network (e.g., due to a physical authentication module, such as a subscriber identity module, being absent and/or due to a software restriction on cellular network access), disablement communications are still permitted across the cellular network.
Accordingly, the device may receive a disable command from the disablement service over the cellular network, and acknowledge processing of the disable command to the disablement service also over the cellular network. Thus, efforts by an unauthorized possessor of the device to prevent disablement by removing the physical authentication module are thwarted. Likewise, turning the cellular service off using software settings at the device also does not prevent the device from being disabled via cellular network communication.”
With this feature, Microsoft is planning to get the tracking to work even if there is an absence of cellular network. However, Microsoft will most likely have to sign a partnership agreement with carriers across the world to make this happen.
One major thing here is that the new tech from Microsoft is still at its nascent stage, so there is no surety that the idea will see the daylight. But as the company is looking into these features, there are certain improvements in this regard which are likely to be released soon.
