'My Account' - a way to store information about the phones owner, so they can be reunited if it's lost.

[Ian Stirling]

Paul Wouters wrote:
> On Thu, 1 Mar 2007, Ian Stirling wrote:
> 
>> http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/My_Account is an overview of some ideas.
>>
>> Briefly, a way for anyone with the phone to access a history of the phone
>> (bought/sold status, reported as stolen, ...), a way for the user to set these
>> as well as contact information for people to return the phone in some way.
>>
>> Thoughts?
> 
> Phone is lost. Someone finds it. If they are honest, they will call the
> last number and say "i just found this, you know who this phone belongs
> to?". If they are dishonest, they remove SIM and keep using the phone,
> perhaps reflashing it.
> 
Reflashing never gets you back a different account number, it keys off 
the IMEI, which is not flashable. (well, perhaps it is, but it's not 
flashable from the linux side, and AIUI, nobody else knows how at the 
moment.)

This is of course not a defence against phone theft, completely.
It's a means for someone considering buying a phone to moderately easily 
ensure that it hasn't been stolen, and a way for police - for example, 
if they come into posession of the phone, to contact you.