GotYa! For Android Uses Front Facing Camera To Capture Photos of Unauthorized Users
Our smartphones house some of our most intimate and darkest secrets. Anything from text messages, pictures, to web history — even bank account numbers could all fall easy prey to unauthorized snooping or if a user gains access to your device.
Let’s pretend you lost your $700 Android superphone and you have one of those fancy “security” apps installed that allow you to lock-in on your device’s location using GPS. Let’s just say the phone is indoors and it pins the location down to a couple hundred yards. Let’s pretend you then go house-to-house to locate you beloved but everyone that answers the door says they have no idea what you’re talking about. What then? Well, you could accuse everyone of lying and get the door shut in your face or you could get smart and install GotYa! from MBFG.
Using your phone’s front facing camera, GotYa! will snap a quick pic of the alleged perpetrator as they attempt to unlock your device unsuccessfully. GotYa! will then email you your device’s location including a Google Maps link with a timestamped picture of the perpetrator. You can even set it up to send you the message via Facebook. GotYa! also allows for control of certain functions using SMS commands like:
- Lock/Unlock your device
- Request a location
- Request a callback
- Play an alarm sound (even if muted)
- Be notified on SIM change
The best part? There’s also a “Friendly Mode” that when enabled, will allow access to your device after a few wrong attempts sending the device location in the background. This way the thief (or snooper) will potentially keep using the device to call friends and brag about their spoils. If memory concerns are an issue for you, you will be pleased to know the developer assures users that the app does not need to run in the background to function. GotYa! is only activated along with the lockscreen.
You can find GotYa! Right now in the Android Market in both a lite free version, and a $2 full version. Paid version includes:
- *FULL* size image capture
- Email/Facebook notifications support with location
- Remote SMS commands
- Smart screen ON capture trigger
- Queued system notifications support
- Incremental, timestamped, captures support
Before leaving feedback in the Market — one thing to keep in mind is since security is GotYa!’s #1 priority, the app can only be uninstalled when you disable the service first from inside the app.