Top Windows Phone 7 Security Apps Roundup

Top Windows Phone 7 Security Apps Roundup
Page content

Top Windows Phone 7 Security Apps

If you’re carrying an expensive Windows Phone 7 device around, you could be targeted by thieves. As such, keeping your phone in a safe place on your person is one way of keeping it out of reach; another way of protecting your device is to take out a good insurance policy.

Various security apps available for Windows Phone 7 can meanwhile be used to protect your phone in other ways.

In addition to these third party apps, Microsoft themselves provide some useful Windows Phone 7 security features via the Windows Live service.

The following apps are available exclusively via the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace on your phone and the Zune desktop client.

DeviceTracker

Stolen Windows Phone 7 handsets can be traced with the DeviceTracker app, available in the UK for £3.49. This tool utilizes the Tracker service provided by the Quoox Network (https://quoox.net/) which claims that you will be able to track your Windows Phone 7 device to any point on the globe!

This app takes advantage of GPS and runs in the background when your phone is locked; as such the battery can easily run down before you trace your phone. A good alternative to this tool is the free, on-board tracker provided by Microsoft and accessed via Windows Live (see below).

PicLocker

PicLocker Windows Phone 7 security app

Many mobile phone users employ their devices as portable picture albums which they can easily add to with the device camera. While it is very easy to upload images from your Windows Phone 7 to Facebook or Windows Live (in fact it can be configured to occur automatically) you might also want to protect the images stored on your phone.

With PicLocker (79p in the UK) you can password protect multiple photo albums on your phone with 256-bit encryption, protecting them from all but the most advanced and experimental quantum decryption tools.

Burglar Alarm

Burglar Alarm - Top Windows Phone 7 security app

Currently available for 79p in the UK, the Burglar Alarm app for Windows Phone 7 offers device security for handsets placed on a desk. Using your Windows Phone 7 device’s motion sensors, Burglar Alarm detects when the phone is picked up or disconnected from your PC and emits a loud siren in order to attract attention.

Designed for situations in which you might have left your phone on a desk at work or on a table in a café, Burglar Alarm is a superb Windows Phone 7 security app.

PwdGenerator

pwdGenerator - Top Windows Phone 7 Security Apps

If you spend a lot of time online or using applications with a secure element, the chances are that sooner or later your imagination is going to run out of memorable but secure passwords. That’s when an app like PwdGenerator comes in useful. Available for 79p in the UK, PwdGenerator enables you to specify a password length as well as specify whether or not the password should include lower case, upper case, numbers or punctuation characters.

This is a very useful app that does exactly what it sets out to do.

Windows Live

Windows Phone 7 Recovery Tools

Thanks to features available to Windows Live account holders you can track a stolen Windows Phone 7 device, instruct it to call home (without alerting suspicion) and even perform a remote factory reset on the device to prevent your personal information from being read by undesirables.

This is a great feature included on the platform by Microsoft, and better still it is free to use! For full information on tracking, retrieving or wiping your Windows Phone 7 device remotely, see our guide on Windows Phone 7 recovery.