ENABLING REMOTE AND ANONYMOUS CONTROL OF MOBILE AND PORTABLE MULTIMEDIA DEVICES FOR SECURITY, TRACKING AND RECOVERY

Aspects of the invention comprise a remote tracking and control server operable to transparently activate control of resources and to monitor operations on a target handheld communication device utilizing code installed on the handheld device. The resources may comprise a camera, microphone, GPS receiver, input device, display, speaker, wireless and/or wire-line transmitter and/or receiver. The monitoring and/or controlling activity is protected from interruption. The handheld device may be accessed by a securely stored unique identifier. Access to the controlling function and/or the resources by a user of the handheld device may be restricted. Monitored information is stored on the handheld device and communicated to the tracking server. The control server may receive monitored information from the handheld device whenever the device is coupled to a communication network. Monitoring may be initiated based on detected motion, sound, user input, video and/or touch.