Student spies on guy who stole his phone, makes film about it

There's nothing more unsettling than having your smartphone stolen from you.

Your conduit to the connected world is severed, sure, but that's just the immediate problem. Your phone probably holds more information about you than any other device -- photos, contacts, messages and notes -- all of which are now in the hands of someone who might try to exploit you. It's not a happy thought.

After having an iPhone stolen, Dutch film student Anthony van der Meer needed to know more about the underworld of snatched handsets. So naturally, he baited a thief and made a film, Find My Phone, of the ensuing adventure after the phone was taken.

To pull it off, van der Meer outfitted a burner Android with Cerberus, an anti-theft app that allows a device to be controlled remotely. In case the thief tried to reset the phone, van der Meer changed the app's name to hide it from detection. He also made flashing and updates impossible, so it couldn't be deleted.

After four days of unsuccessful attempts at having the decoy stolen in Rotterdam, van der Meer and his friends moved on to Amsterdam, where he claims 17 phones are reported stolen each day. Even then, no thief took the bait — until after they had given up. The phone was grabbed while they waited to catch the metro home, so there was no footage of the event.

Once the phone was stolen, van der Meer was notified that the thief replaced the SIM card in the device. He tracked the thief for weeks, took pictures and video — eventually, he felt as if he was bonding with the new, illegitimate owner of the phone.

The whole film is a testament to how we use our smartphones. How vulnerable do we feel when we lose them, and how much of a person's personality is really imparted onto a device? Would someone tracking your every move really know the real you from usage patterns and data?

Even without any definitive answers to these questions, the Find My Phone does have one overarching lesson everyone can learn — if you can help it, don't let your phone be taken.