Conspiracy Theory #1–Why you can never find a lost cell phone.

Why is it the cell phone companies are always unable to help me find my phone when I lose it? It can’t have to do with privacy, that’s a lie, because it’s my phone with my account that has my data on it so privacy laws do not restrict me authorizing anyone to find my own property. It can’t be that they can’t find it because in an emergency they can find my phone very quickly, if I get kidnapped or in an accident or call 911 they can pinpoint me and my phone within a very small distance . It can’t be because the technology doesn’t exist either because if, for example, I lose my Windows Phone, I can go to “find my phone” at http://devices.live.com/ and locate it within 30 seconds (just another reason to have a windows phone).

So why can’t cell phone carriers help me locate my phone and instead are only capable of saying, sorry, which new phone would you like to pay full price for to replace your old phone. Now I remember, cell phone companies are unethical and use you losing your phone as an upsell/profit opportunity. It’s not that they CAN’T find your phone, it’s that they WON’T find your phone.

Do yourself a favor and buy a phone, it doesn’t have to be a Windows Phone, but buy a phone that YOU can locate over the internet if you lose it and make learning how to locate it quickly one of the first things you learn how to do on your phone. If you how to do it quickly before the battery dies right when you realize it’s missing, you will never have to depend on the call carriers and their unethical practices again.

In the meantime, someone should start a petition to the FCC requiring all carriers to provide online phone locating tools for all subscribers.

If you do happen to have a Windows Phone, here is a 4 minute video by my colleague Daniel Egan on how to locate your Windows Phone.

http://thesociablegeek.com/windows-phone-7/wp7-minute-episode-vifind-my-phone/

-ScottKer

(Originally Posted on scottkerfoot.com Blogengine.net blog and manually migrated to WordPress on 10/20/2017 for Historical reasons)