OK I’m exaggerating somewhat, but it’s not far from the truth. Our smartphone these days have become cybernetic extensions of ourselves, our brains, and even our whole digital lives. 

My phone died today, and suddenly I feel like I’d lost a limb. Almost incapacitated, and deep feelings of unease and discomfort. Access to social media are the parts that’s easy to get over, but the sick sinking feeling comes from having lost all the photos I took from my last backup a few months ago. I have a cute six-month old baby boy, and all photos are precious, so you can imagine… Besides having potentially lost all these photos, the other things that made me sick in the stomach are the security apps. Losing access to my authenticator app means I can’t login to my MOST IMPORTANT accounts on the internet… because these accounts are important, they are 2FA enabled via TOTP, which makes them susceptible to shenanigans like this. And guess what, my backup codes are in my phone too - talk about a single point of catastrophic failure! 

And after all that, I got to contact technical support for all these web services, go through the tedious process of ensuring that I am the rightful owner, before I got access back again. Paaaaaainful. The irony is that my other less important accounts are fine. Lesson learned. I got to really have second backups if I do use TOTP. Not forgetting to mention the huge time sinks chatting with support with Apple to try to fix my phone, only to have nothing to show for after 2-3 hours. I’ll have to bring it to the Apple Store for repairs tomorrow, but the thought that I have to leave my phone with them, that the repair dude can access all my bank apps, personal details…almost feels like a surgery you didn’t sign up for.

If my phone is a cybernetic extension of myself, how would I care for it as I care for my own body? What would change after today’s experience?

• Frequent phone backups and syncs like frequent showers
• I need a better photo backup solution that uploads to a secure server continuously in the background. Google Photos won’t cut it - too little privacy. 
• Have backups for my 2FAs - print backup codes, lock them in a safe? Save them in an encrypted folder? 
• My TOTP authenticator app better come with backups or alternative login too - DO NOT USE Google Authenticator!
• Always have alternative ways to login for my most critical accounts

What other advice do you have?