Here’s a friendly holiday reminder that if you’re going to hand your phone to a stranger to take your photo, at least make sure your phone is locked.
We’ve all done it. You’re outside a restaurant or landmark and you’re struggling to take a selfie or group photo and a stranger offers to take the photo for you.
Usually we hand over our unlocked phone instantly and don’t think twice about it.
That is, until the other night when someone offered to take my photo.
Once my unlocked phone was in their hand they said, “Are you worried I might run off with this?” I played it cool and wasn’t particularly worried about the physical device, but all of my personal information on there.
The Wall Street Journal has explained how a thief with the right information could reset your password and instantly lock you out of your Apple account in seconds.
In my case, I played along but instantly realized my mistake.
In the future, if you’re going to hand your phone to a stranger to take your photo, it’s probably a good idea to hand over your locked phone.
On iPhone, it’s kind of tricky since Face ID will unlock your device if you look at it while unlocking your camera.
To get around this, angle your phone away from your face and use the lock screen shortcut to open the camera or swipe from right to left on the screen to open the camera.
Either way, you can confirm your phone is still locked if you see a small padlock icon in the upper portion of your phone screen if your phone has a Dynamic Island display.
Otherwise, you can try swiping up from the bottom of the screen as if you were exiting the camera app. If it brings you to your homescreen, your phone is unlocked. If it brings you to the lock screen or the passcode screen, your phone is locked.
On Android, use a double press of the power button to activate the camera while keeping your phone locked.
It might take a little practice, but this extra second of precaution might save you from a major headache.
In my situation, everything worked out fine. The stranger was simply making a joke, but the encounter exposed a significant security vulnerability in my daily phone habits.