I would pay for a pin and a lure profile on my Android phone, and I am not alone

A few days ago, my colleague Calvin shared an interesting fact on graphene: the personalized ROM allows it to define a constraint pin that completely erases the phone when it enters, including encryption keys and ESIM partition. It is a very drastic confidentiality measure which allows anyone to protect your data if it is forced to put back or unlock their phone when they do not want to do it.

I love that functionality exists for those who think they may need it, even if it is through a personalized ROM, but as many commentators have stressed it on Calvin’s article, it is too drastic for most of us. Instead, what several commentators and I would like to be more like a lure pin that opens a sandy version of my profile. And I’m not alone. Many of you want exactly that and even pay it.

Another option would be to make several users on Android accessible from the same pin screen screen, and we would be golden. I am surprised that this feature is not yet part of Android, especially when it could benefit everyone, not just confidentiality monsters, including families who share a tablet at home.

Even if I am fascinated by the idea of setting up a killing switch on my phone, I think it is an extreme measure that very little, if not, will need or use. It is an exaggerated solution that gives way to forgetting and potential improper use. If you choose a strong pin, you could forget it when you need it. If you choose a low pin, like 0000 or 1234, you will risk someone (a child, most likely) wipe your phone and your data by mistake if your phone picks up and try to guess your code. Someone suggested choosing a lure pin that differs by a number of their main spindle, but I think it’s even worse. A finger shift and my data is gone, disappeared. Better never to use my phone with fatty or sweat fingers!

What also worries me in the constraint pins is that they could trigger violence on the side of the person who forced me to unlock my phone. Who knows what they could do when they realize that I have erased everything?

A lure pin would behave a little differently. Instead of erasing my phone, it would unlock a sandbox version of my profile with all the crucial applications (banking, files, photos) hidden, or unlock under another user and keep my main account and my hidden and encrypted data. For the former, Google should understand how the private and effective parts of sandbox in the operating system, which may not be the simplest option. For the latter, it would be on the user (very invested and technological literacy) to choose if they want to do the work to create a separate profile and a credible account.

Personally, I imagine that the configuration with a relatively unused Google account and keeping some applications and bits of data without real value. If I have to unlock my phone, I could enter this lure pin, open a lure profile and let them explore this. No reason for them to suspect that I hide something or that I have erased data and evidence.

Look, I know that, technically, in the case of police investigations or targets targeted with violent criminals, no pin or lure pin can guarantee that you are released unharmed or that your data will not be obtained in another way. But most of us are normal people who live boring old lives. There is no logical reason that we should be afraid of these situations. What worries me, personally, is more at the scale of small modern thieves who could require access to my financial applications. And in these cases, keeping bank and monetary applications in a main profile while the profile of lure does not house anything like this seems to me to be a good level of protection, without going too far in the mentality of coat and dagger.

I compare a little to the use of a coercion code on my alarm system. Instead of triggering the sirens around the house, entering this secondary code disarms the system but sends a silent notification to my emergency contacts saying that I was forced to disarm. It is an invisible safety measure and did not stress the aggressor, that is what I like. Some countries even impose this in their regulation of the alarm system.

Android already supports several users and profiles. You can configure them under Settings> System> Users And have several people (or your own multiple accounts) access their applications, files, photos and data separately.

But the current system is still very basic. If I pick up my phone now, I must first check which user is selected before entering the pin. If I enter my secondary spit on my main user profile, I get an error. I do not know why Android cannot be intelligent enough, like any keyboard or biometric input system in this vast universe, to understand that different pins, fingerprints or faces unlock different users with different privileges, without needing to manually change users in advance.

It would be the basis of a lure pin profile configuration, but it would also make Android more user -friendly for families or couples who share a tablet with several users. No need to teach Little Lucas that he must light the screen, drop the notification shade, press the user switch, choose his name, then enter his spit to be able to play Minecraft on the family tablet. Just turn on the screen and enter your spindle, and Android would be able exactly what profile unlock.

There are other minor modifications that should occur on Android to make it more compatible with a lure pins profile situation. For example, not a large user switching animation (see photo above) which shows exactly what is happening. The idea is to hide the subterfuge, not to advertise it on the entire display. We would also need an option to hide the user account selector at least in the most visible parts of the user interface, such as the drop -down notification shade. That is to say uh, exactly the opposite of what Google has done with the very visible and very obvious multi-user widget.

Anyway, most of the work is already done in Android. There is a native management for several users, and encryption is strong enough to separate them. Everything we need is some pinching and folds, and those of us who wish could start using several users to create a lure profile. I hope Google will bring these changes soon, or, if it really wants to create a tighter confidentiality tank, I hope it does the job to leave us to sequest parts of the operating system under constraint while pretending to unlock the entire system. Anyway, there are too many of our personal data in our phones today, and having to use personalized ROMs to protect properly, it is not a real solution.