Preventing Touch Screen Smudges by Minh Tam Doan

A person is on an Android tablet after he eats garlic bread. His cousin manages to get ahold of the the tablet and figures out the Android passcode. He was puzzled at first, until he raised the screen into the light. He saw the smudge marks he made with the oil from the garlic bread, and wondered how to prevent this.

Because of the pattern feature of the Android lock, it is relatively simple to redo the code by looking at the smudges. In fact, you can recreate the code 90% of the time according to the University of Pennsylvania.

Of course you can use a pin code to lower the risk or go through the hassle of wiping the screen every time to prevent an intrusion. Or you can use the app called Whispercore. According to Lifehacker, “it arranges the numbers vertically and it then asks you to wipe the screen in order to unlock the phone, obfuscating the original smudges. If you use a pattern to lock your phone, after you input the correct pattern, it's a screen full of stars. Swipe the highlighted stars to unlock the phone, again obfuscating the original smudge pattern.” This then acts a reminder to wipe your screen.

Another thing you could do is to use more than four digits. For example, if you have a six digit code, you can use the same digit more than once so that the hacker will have trouble finding the amount of digits there are.

According to Breakthrough teacher Edwin, it is “an issue we should address...always make sure to erase our code.” Also, he recognizes that “in regular school, when your classmates steal your phone, they can easily hack it.” Edwin finds that this problem is common in school as this is where your phone can be stolen easily.