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remove unfamiliar device

To end a device’s association with an account or service when the user does not recognize the device.

In plain English

This means disconnecting a device from being linked to an account or service. The key point is that the device is not one the person recognizes as familiar or expected. It is about ending that connection.

In context

Here, it instructs the user to take a device they do not recognize off the account.

Situation
Responding to phishing, suspicious activity, fraud, and compromise alerts
What it communicates
instructs the user to take an unknown device off the account.

Meaning limits

The term alone does not establish how the device became associated or any wider effect of ending that association.

Examples

“Seeing a tablet she did not recognize linked to her account, she removed the unfamiliar device.”

Core meaning

“The alert told her to remove the unfamiliar device from the account.”

In context