Security improvements, minus the hassle
Your phone is now the key. Lock it.
If you've opened the ImmoTrack GPS app lately, you might have noticed it now insists your phone has a screen lock. PIN, pattern, fingerprint, Face ID, whatever your phone supports. Pick one, and off you go.
Here's why.
Why we're being strict about it
We’re not locking up Dinosaurs here, but it’s still risky.
The app isn't just a map with a dot on it. It knows where your car is, where it's been, and in a lot of cases it can immobilise it with a tap. That's a fair bit of power to leave behind an unlocked screen.
Lose your phone at a cafe, or have it lifted out of your pocket, and whoever picks it up gets your location history and, if you're running an immobiliser, a remote kill switch AND the ability to Activate the car. Not a great outcome, and exactly what a tracker is meant to protect you from.
There’s also the kid risk when you hand your phone off to the little ones.
Just imagine them all clicking “Disable Stolen Vehicle” while Mum or Grandma is at a set of lights on a busy road. Not ideal!
The app already locked itself when your phone had a screen lock. Now it's not optional. Every launch, your phone asks you to unlock first. It's the same face or fingerprint you use for your banking app, so it adds about half a second to your day and leans on the secure hardware already in your phone instead of something we built ourselves.
You've got mail (when you log in)
Are you this old? We’re this old.
We've also started sending a quick email whenever your account is logged into, with where it came from.
This is for actual logins only. Opening the app when you're already signed in doesn't count, so you won't get an email every time you check on the car. Most of the time it'll be you setting up a new phone, and you can read it and move on. If it wasn't you, you'll know straight away, and that's the whole point.
What's next: passwords are so last decade century
Passwords have had a good run, but they're a relic. Everyone reuses them, everyone forgets them, and every other week some big company leaks a few million of them. Your ImmoTrack password is only as safe as the weakest site you've ever used it on.
Movin’ on up
So, we're moving to passwordless login. Enter your email, we send you a link, tap it, you're in. Nothing to forget, nothing to reuse, nothing for a phishing page to steal. The app remembers you once you've logged in, and the device lock takes it from there. Just make sure that your Email security is up to scratch.
Here are some guides we highly recommend you follow, depending on where your Email lives:
You may note that your Email provider still allows insecure methods of authentication such as only a password. We recommend that you set up the best security settings that you can learn to use. If your provider offers passwordless authentication, make use of it!
What this means for you
If you're already logged in, you stay logged in. Nothing to do right now.
In the coming weeks, new customers will get passwordless login from day one. For everyone else there'll be a transition period where both password and passwordless login work, before we switch fully to passwordless on November 1. After that, password resets are a thing of the past. Forgot how to get in? Just request a new login link.
One thing worth checking is that the email on your ImmoTrack account is one you can get to from your phone, because that's where the login links and sign in emails go. Not sure what we've got? Check your account in the app, or ask us.
And make sure your phone has a screen lock and the app is up to date. If anything isn't working the way you expect, get in touch and we'll sort it out.