BlackBerry Protect is a new free service from Research in Motion that brings a number of security features to the BlackBerry platform. The company started a private beta test of BlackBerry Protect last summer. But this weekend RIM launched a public beta, which means anyone with a supported phone can install the free app from the BlackBerry App World Test Center.

The BlackBerry Protect app lets you:

• Find a missing phone on a map using GPS and cell-tower triangulation.
• Remotely lock your phone or set a password.
• Activate a special ring to help locate a missing phone — even if the phone is in silent mode.
• Send a message to your phone letting anyone who finds it know how to return it.
• Backup all of the data from your phone .
• Securely wipe all the data from your phone and SD card remotely.

Even when your phone isn’t missing, BlackBerry Connect will automatically perform regular wireless backups of your contacts, appointments, bookmarks, and other data. You can also use the app to restore from an earlier backup.

Lookout is a mobile security app for Google Android which is designed to block spyware and viruses, backup your data, help you find your missing phone, and scan apps as you install them for potential threats. That’s what the free version of the app gets you. Starting November 16th, Lookout will also start offering a premium service for $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

Lookout Premium will offer a number of enhanced security features, including:

• Login and wipe the data from your missing/stolen phone remotely, or lock your device
• Backup and restore photos, call history, and contacts
• Transfer backed up data to a new phone
• Privacy adviser which lets you know which apps can access your private data

The company will offer a 30 day free trial of Lookout Premium if you don’t feel like shelling out cash just to test the app.

via TechCrunch

Microsoft’s My Phone service for Windows Mobile lets you backup data from your phone, share photos on social networking sites, access some of you’re phone’s information from any web browser, and locate a missing phone on a map. Basically, it’s Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s MobileMe. Except it’s free.

While Microsoft is changing the name of its mobile platform from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone 7, the company is keeping the My Phone service. The folks at WMpoweruser have snagged a screenshot of the new web interface, which lets you find your phone’s location on a map or make the phone ring in case you simply misplaced it in your other coat pocket.

You can also lock the phone and display a message if you think you left it in a cab and are hoping the person who found it might be inclined to return it. Or if you’ve got sensitive data that shouldn’t leak into the hands of the Chinese, you can remotely wipe your phone and restore the factory settings.

via Download Squad

Google has the ability to remotely reach out to your phone and remove applications that you’ve downloaded and installed from the Android Market. That sounds scary… and it kind of is. But since Android was first introduced over two years ago, the company never really used that feature… until recently.

Normally, when Google spots an app that violates its terms of service, it simply removes that app from the Android Market. But on the Android Developers Blog, the company says it recently spotted two apps that violated those terms and which had already been removed from the Market — but which Google decided to remotely wipe from users phones as well.

Neither free app was actually malicious. Instead, they were designed by a research firm to conduct some sort of research — and the descriptions misidentified the purpose of the apps in order to increase downloads. But the point is that Google could use the same tools to remove actual malicious apps from your phone, while sending you an alert to let you know about it. And that could be a good thing.

There was a story going around this week about a study showing that as many as 20% of the apps in the Android Market could be spyware or worse, based on the level of access to your phone that those apps use. It turns out that most of them are probably harmless, and you do see a pop up message alerting you to some of the services each app accesses when you install it.

But if an app did manage to leak through the cracks, it looks like Google could retroactively flip a switch, remove the app, and help protect you.

On the other hand — what if a copyright holder decides that an app you paid for violates their copyright? Could they contact Google and request that the company remove it? Would you get a refund? Would you be happy even if you did? It’s a bit scary realizing how much control Google has over the device you’ve already purchased and customized to make your own.

via Droid Life