Cell phone Neuralizer (Data Protection)

Cell phones today carry wealth of personal data. They can even act as mobile credit cards. Unfortunately they can very easily be lost or stolen.

Keith Cocita of Santa Cruz, California, US, has come up with a way to prevent valuable information kept on a cell phone from falling into the wrong hands.

If a cell phone disappears for any reason, the owner simply calls it up and enters a secret code. This triggers the phone to wipe its internal memory, along with the contents of its SIM card.

Such a feature could potentially be misused by the owner. The phone might just have slipped down the back of the sofa or simply misplaced and the owner decides to clean his cellphone data.

To prevent such needless data loss, the phone’s charging cradle maintains a full record of all personal data kept on the device while charging the battery overnight. That way, the next time the phone, or its replacement, is charged up it will automatically be loaded with all the deleted data. This would also take care of protecting the data in case of physical damage.

Read more about the cellphone neutraliser patent here.

Hat tip: New Scientist