Mobile

Would you be willing to self destruct your phone if stolen?

Kaboom!
Ever wondered what happens to all your personal data if your phone gets lost or stolen? If your lucky, the only thing the thief is looking for is some quick cash. However, user data can sometimes prove far more valuable.

This leads to the question, is there a way to stop such a possibility? You may be thinking that ‘Hey, I keep my phone locked so there is no way anyone can access my data.’ But unfortunately, there are ways that both Apple and Android phones can be used to extract personal information.

An extreme solution?

Apparently, folks over at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia were thinking the exact same thing. They developed technology for just the thing. The crux is that if your phone gets stolen, you can remotely get it to self destruct. This way not only there is no way your personal data gets misused but the thief only gets a charred piece of junk.

The self exploding tech is an add-on for any mobile phone, built from polymer and silicon. It is placed inside the phone. If and when the phone gets lost or stolen, it can be triggered to self-destruct using an app, for which you need another backup phone. The tech uses the power of the battery to make it explode in 10 seconds.

Although you might get a lot more nervous using your phone this way. Knowing that you have this small bomb capable of roasting your phone does not help.

The development team estimates that the self-destructing tech will cost around 15 dollars. However, it is still unknown if it will be available in the mass market. There are some alternatives as well, for instance, there is an app called Autowipe which wipes the internal memory and sd card if one of the following events have taken place: