CLOSED: [2014-12-26 Fri 11:04] SCHEDULED: <2014-12-26 Fri> :PROPERTIES: :CREATED: [2014-12-26 Fri 10:50] :ID: 2014-12-26-Watchdroid-with-TextSecure :END: :LOGBOOK: - State "DONE" from "NEXT" [2014-12-26 Fri 11:04] :END: For many years, I was using [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.androgone.simwatchdog][WatchDroid Pro]] to be able to locate and remote control my Android phone in case it gets stolen. The nice thing about WatchDroid is, that you don't rely on any cloud- or company-based infrastructure which is able to locate or control your device as well (privacy!). WatchDroid is using simple TextMessages with a secret keyword. For example, if you send (from any other phone) a text message with the content ~MYSECRETKEYWORD:gps~, the GPS coordinates (with a Google Maps link) get sent back to this phone number. The text message does not show up on your device at all. That's neat! However, with switching from any normal text message app to [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcrime.securesms][TextSecure]] ([[id:2014-03-23-TextSecure][German blog post of me]]), I've lost the features of WatchDroid: TextSecure is using an encrypted data connection for communicating with other TextSecure users and incoming text messages get encrypted as well. This way, WatchDroid is not able to "intercept" incoming messages any more. -------------------- Today, I wrote an email to Androgone Development, the creator of WatchDroid. I would recommend you to do so as well, in case you are interested in having a privacy-enabled method to locate and control your phone in case you loose it. #+BEGIN_VERSE From: Karl To: androgone AT gmail.com Subject: WatchDroid with TextSecure (from WhisperSystems) Hi! I was a proud and content user of WatchDroid Pro and I convinced friends and family to buy this great piece of software as well. However, since I am a privacy-aware Internet citizen (your target group number one I guess), I switched from a normal SMS (text message) app to TextSecure[1] to be able to communicate without being spied on on regular basis. Because of the different transportation channels (secured data connection or text messages) and the encryption that TextSecure provides, WatchDroid was not able to "read" incoming text messages any more. I lost all features of WatchDroid :-( Therefore, I suggest you to probably fork TextSecure[1] or provide some kind of TextSecure plug-in or similar! If you are open to this idea: You should be very careful on not harming the security of TextSecure. Probably you are interested in contacting the community behind TextSecure in order to find the best strategy to get text messages from TextSecure to WatchDroid. Probably implement this TextSecure interface/plug-in on open source basis on GitHub as well. In my opinion, you could get *many* new customers because security-aware people also care about their precious smart phone. And as I remember correctly, there is no method to locate my phone in a privacy-aware manner without having to rely on a company-based cloud solution. I would really look forward to this and I would also buy some kind of TextSecure-compatible WatchDroid version again. Greetings from Graz/Austria! [1] https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure/ #+END_VERSE