Password Protecting Email/gMail Apps

[jsh1120]

Another thread raised the question of "logging off" of gMail on the Droid as a way to secure access to one's email. Frankly, I hadn't considered the problem but the more I thought about it, the fact that you apparently cannot protect any email account from access once the phone is open appears to be a serious problem.

Unfortunately, the earlier thread focused on the question of how an email account could be synched if a phone "logged off" of the account. That isn't the issue. It's perfectly acceptable to have your phone "logged into" your gmail (or corporate email) account for synch purposes. What is simply not acceptable to many people is the fact that the default "gmail" and "email" buttons cannot be password protected on the phone. At least as far as I can tell.

And yes, I realize one can lock one's phone. And one can refuse to allow anyone to look at your phone unsupervised when it's unlocked. But it's utterly insane to market a smart phone for business use where email cannot be password protected. (I'll leave aside the question of personal preferences about the privacy of one's email and why one might not want a friend to have complete access to your email.)

So the question is, have I missed an application in the market that can interpose a password between the gmail or email buttons and access to email? Is it possible to develop such an app? I'm suspecting it isn't since the gmail and email apps appear to be "built in" to the Droid and cannot be messed with without (at least) rooting the phone.

I'm sure if there is anyone out there who reads my posts here, they're tired of hearing me complain about the weaknesses of the Droid as a business phone. But this is perhaps the prime example of the challenges faced in making it a suitable choice for corporate use.

 

[asmallchild]

Can u password protect email on a bb?

 

[Jonny Kansas]

There MAY be an app for creating password protected folders that you could put them in on your homescreen. And some apps claim to be able to hide apps in the drawer. The two together might suit your needs.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but this post will move you up the list of active topics.

My Droid is, at this point, solely used for personal use and I don't get confidential emails often...

 

[jsh1120]

Can u password protect email on a bb?

Yes. Also on WinMobile phones.

 

[jsh1120]

There MAY be an app for creating password protected folders that you could put them in on your homescreen. And some apps claim to be able to hide apps in the drawer. The two together might suit your needs.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but this post will move you up the list of active topics.

My Droid is, at this point, solely used for personal use and I don't get confidential emails often...

Actually, they're not my needs. All the stuff I need protected on my phone (e.g. cc numbers, passwords, etc.) are encrypted and protected by passwords. My emails are neither neither very interesting nor likely to endanger my marriage. :icon_eek: However, this is a problem that would immediately disqualify a Droid from being adopted by many corporations.

 

[dayfornight99]

I started a thread on this a few months ago. still no app I've found that will password protect gmail or email. It doesnt take much to get past the pattern lock screen and I'd hate to have some one steal my droid AND get direct access to my email.

 

[qwiksilver711]

I have a guy i work with trying a simple program for the droid, I spoke with him a bit about the huge outcry for a program like this, and he said he will try to work on getting something like this made, if its possible

 

[SMYDSMITH]

Secure Email and apps is a strong need for Business and personal

I have given up using the built in GMAIL and email apps and only acccess email via the brower interface until this is fixed.
These Faults seem to be with the security on all the Android phones as the all use android OS which neds allot more improvements.
1) All the apps and email apps should be able to have password protection as aoption. The built in passsword for the phone is not good enough.
2) You should be able to switch between line passwords on the phone and your google password or a dedicated phone only password. But even if you use a phone password you should still be able to lock down indiviual apps and email accounts.
3) Old phones using the verizon email apps had this feature as you could set it to prompt for your password every time or not
4) I have seen posts about a droid manual but I have not seen a link. The droid forums seem a steps in the right direction and maybe the manual is somewhere on here but I haven't found it yet.
5) One touch dialing needs great improvement but you have to do 4-5 steps to get there. 1) press unlock, 2) Slide Unlock, 3) enter pw if set, 4) get to home screen or dialer app, 5)Get to right page in app or home screen for shortcut one touch dialing. \
The emaill password problem and the one touch dialing is a huge pain and biggest problem I have seen with the droid phones even though I switched my easier phone for a droid to get better internet access and apps I am asking for fixes suggestions improvements from the cell phone makers and Verizon to fix and improve these problems as it would improve the phone greatly.

I will watch this thread for answers

thanks in advance

I have a guy i work with trying a simple program for the droid, I spoke with him a bit about the huge outcry for a program like this, and he said he will try to work on getting something like this made, if its possible

 

[jbg25]

there are severla app for that...

app portector lite/pro...carrot app lock...protector

been around for a while now. Works just like you guys are looking for.

 

[jsh1120]

there are severla app for that...

app portector lite/pro...carrot app lock...protector

been around for a while now. Works just like you guys are looking for.

True. There has been some followup on this issue in other threads but it's good to see it picked up here.

There appear to be two "families" of these apps; "protector" and "app protector." From what I can tell, the two sets came from a single group of developers who had some sort of falling out and now have competing apps in the Market.

Both sets have both free and paid apps and vary only slightly in terms of functionality in look and feel. I've tried both (a couple of months ago) and each seems to do the job. Assuming they've been updated appropriately to keep up with changes in the Android o/s, the paid versions of the apps should meet the requirements of anyone who needs to password protect either applications or specific files.

One issue users might want to consider. When I last checked, one of the apps (sorry, can't recall which) "unlocked" an app (such as email) only once. The app stayed unlocked until the phone was booted again. This might be considered either a convenience or a security problem depending on your point of view.

 

[SMYDSMITH]

I'll try the apps but what aboout the one touch dialing

OK the posts say:
app portector lite/pro...
carrot app lock...
protector
and another thread said "good android"

I will try them and post back what I think

But part 2 of my question was on an old style cell phone where you had a keypad you could have 1 touch dialing ( on a flip phone you had to open the clam shell so 2 steps)
-On a droid phone you can set shortuts on the desktop og get an app than mimics one touch dialing but ...
For Instance on an ALLY you have to do the following let me know if there is a better way:
1) Press the end button to make the screen show the swipe screen
2) Swipe the screen to unlock or if using password protection unlock phone with swipe code
3) If the last app was your one touch dialer press the 1 touch dial and your calling but ..
4-6) if you are in any other app you have to press the send key to bring up contacts and 5-6) to scroll or call or use a favorrite or
4-6) press home key and press 1 touch dial shortcut unless its on different screen so scroll and then press shortcut on different screen
The biggest drawback I miss from old style cell phones that I put up wth grudglely is one touch dialing 1 step Press 4 CAll Home Press 3 CAll a friend etc

Is there a way to make 1 touch dialing faster than 4-6 steps someone said it can be done it 2 please explain more (If there is a thread on one touch link it here:icon_eek:

 

[jbg25]

download switch pro widget...

use the screen lock feature (turn it off)...this kills the need to swype. Just hit any of the physical buttons (power, volume, camera) and the phone turns on and goes to the last homescreen you were on.

Then it is just two buttons...the physical button and then the quickdial shortcut you put on your home page.

 

[wmscottmc]

On my blackberry, all of my Hotmail emails are sent directly to my Storm. But I lock my phone so it would be difficult for anybody to get to them. I assume that Android phones allow you to lock the phone, correct?

If I want to get to my hotmail acct, I need to browse to it, which requires a password. Arent you prompted for a gmail password when logging into your email from an Android phone? What about others, like Hotmail, I assume you need to enter a password in order to log into hotmail, correct?

Another solution would be to change your passwords, from a pc, if you phone were stolen. I would do that even if not required, just to be safe.

 

[jsh1120]

OK the posts say:
app portector lite/pro...
carrot app lock...
protector
and another thread said "good android"

I will try them and post back what I think

But part 2 of my question was on an old style cell phone where you had a keypad you could have 1 touch dialing ( on a flip phone you had to open the clam shell so 2 steps)
-On a droid phone you can set shortuts on the desktop og get an app than mimics one touch dialing but ...
For Instance on an ALLY you have to do the following let me know if there is a better way:
1) Press the end button to make the screen show the swipe screen
2) Swipe the screen to unlock or if using password protection unlock phone with swipe code
3) If the last app was your one touch dialer press the 1 touch dial and your calling but ..
4-6) if you are in any other app you have to press the send key to bring up contacts and 5-6) to scroll or call or use a favorrite or
4-6) press home key and press 1 touch dial shortcut unless its on different screen so scroll and then press shortcut on different screen
The biggest drawback I miss from old style cell phones that I put up wth grudglely is one touch dialing 1 step Press 4 CAll Home Press 3 CAll a friend etc

Is there a way to make 1 touch dialing faster than 4-6 steps someone said it can be done it 2 please explain more (If there is a thread on one touch link it here:icon_eek:

I'd recommend that you take these questions to another thread that deals specifically with the issues you're raising. You might try searching the forum to identify an appropriate thread or going to the "applications" board to post the issues.

Not trying to discourage you; it's just that your questions about speed dialing are very unlikely to elicit much response on this thread.

 

[jsh1120]

On my blackberry, all of my Hotmail emails are sent directly to my Storm. But I lock my phone so it would be difficult for anybody to get to them. I assume that Android phones allow you to lock the phone, correct?

If I want to get to my hotmail acct, I need to browse to it, which requires a password. Arent you prompted for a gmail password when logging into your email from an Android phone? What about others, like Hotmail, I assume you need to enter a password in order to log into hotmail, correct?

Another solution would be to change your passwords, from a pc, if you phone were stolen. I would do that even if not required, just to be safe.

Not exactly the same. Yes, android phones support locking the entire phone. But many users choose not to lock their phones or would like to have the option of lending their phone to someone without worrying about the security of their applications.

Finally, no, access to email accounts does not require that one enter a password each time you check your email. Either the email is "pushed" to your phone (e.g. gmail) or the email client on the phone "polls" for emails and downloads them to the phone. Thus, the client email apps "know" the password, but you don't have to enter it in order to retrieve email.

One can, of course, choose not to use an email client at all and access, say, Hotmail, directly via the phone's browser. That approach can be configured to require entry of a password each time the email server is accessed. But that more or less eliminates the advantage of being notified when email is sent to you.