Android security optionsFew things are more important these days than security. If your phone is lost or stolen, you want to keep your information out of someone else's hands. And one of the easiest ways to do that is with basic password protection on your phone.

With Android 2.2, you have new options for locking your phone. There's the tried and true pattern unlock (which remains in use on pre-Froyo phones). And now we also have the ability to lock via a personal identification number (PIN), or by alpha-numeric password.

To get to the security options, tap the menu button from the home screen, then choose Settings>Security>Screen lock. (The exact words may vary slightly from phone to phone.)

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Once you set your security option, you can set how quickly you want the phone to lock itself. Could be immediately, could be after five or 10 minutes.

If your phone is hooked into a corporate Exchange system, however, you might be subject to its security policies, so some of these options my be mandatory, or you might not be able to set the lock time, so check with your IT department.

But for everyone else, there's no excuse to not protect your privacy with this one.