BlackBerry Protect is a free service that lets BlackBerry smartphone users locate missing phones and activate a whole range of security features. The app has been available as a free download from the BlackBerry App World since earlier this month, but up until recently the service was limited to the United States.Now Blackberry Protect is also available in Europe.

The free app brings features to individual BlackBerry customers that were previously only available for enterprise users. For instance, you can locate a missing phone on a map, set a password and lock your device remotely, or even wipe all data from your phone remotely.

BlackBerry Protect also lets you wirelessly backup and restore your phone’s contacts, calendar, browser bookmarks, and other data. You can schedule backups to run daily, weekly, or monthly, and you can use the service to restore your data to a new phone if you switch from one BlackBerry device to antoher.

Brad Linder

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