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.

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since...

One reply on “BlackBerry Protect goes beta, offers online backup, remote wipe, more”

  1. Interesting…I’ll definitely be trying this program in the coming days. Black Berry Protect allows you to backup contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, browser bookmarks and text messages. TEP only allows you to backup contacts. 

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