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. 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]

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.