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It's Time To Start Taking Stolen Phones Seriously
itwbennett writes "'Find My iPhone' is neat, but it's time for smartphone makers and carriers to stop pretending their anti-theft measures are anything more than minimum viable products, says blogger Kevin Purdy. He's not the first to point this out: As reported in Slashdot, 'NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said overall crime in New York City was up 3.3% in 2012 due to iPhone, iPad and other Apple device thefts.' And now San Francisco and New York attorneys general are calling a 'Smartphone Summit' where representatives from Apple, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft are due to meet and discuss the implementation of a industry-wide 'kill switch' system."
The best best for Android is Cerberus. Seriously, it does everything that "Find my iPhone" does plus a few things it will never do. It's free today through AppGratis http://www.droid-life.com/2013/06/06/deal-cerberus-lifetime-license-is-free-today-from-appgratis/
If you happen to have a rooted phone, there's even a ROM version which will survive a Factory Reset.
Why can't they just blacklist the phone's IMEI?
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
cut them off at the network... NYC are talking to the wrong people they need to speak to GSM and CTIA.
they do it in Europe as well the USA is very slow about this...
" Carriers AT&T and T-Mobile offer a joint database, as the carriers use the same basic networking technology. Verizon and Sprint offer a second database. By the end of November 2013, the four carriers will combine databases, and adding smaller carriers like Nex-Tech and Cellcom. Plans exist to link the US database with an international version hosted by the GSM Association to prevent stolen phones from being shipped to overseas markets and used on other networks."
LOL your so funny, cause if the Government wanted to or the phone provider wanted to they couldn't cut of your phone access any other way?
People don't get mugged for phones much out here in Australia, all you have to do is report the phone stolen and its blacklisted.. Not even doggy pawn shops take a phone without checking that. You would be left selling on ebay, even then the buyer would just file through Paypal to get their cash back.
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
It's not buying a new phone that is the business model.
1.) The device is stolen
2.) New device obtained. (some $$)
3.) Old device is activated by someone new (recurring new $$. Here is the money for the carrier)
Now, many many years ago, I was a cellular switching site manager (before we had the giant carrier we have now). When I learn how cellular worked, it was explicitly state the the devices had a thing called an ESN (electronic Serial Number). This was for activating the device AND stolen devices were SUPPOSED to go into a shared database that would be checked to assure stolen devices were not activated. The marketing manager was livid that such a thing could exist. Needless to say it's pretty obvious today how that worked out. There is no shared database of stolen devices in the US (North America?). There is in Europe.
'nuff said
Let's say 5% of iPhone owners have had their phones stolen over all of time (which is a large number if you think of it), that would mean for all the bullshit the company has to put up with regarding a stolen phone they would make all of 5% extra on top of their normal sales. That's ridiculous if you think about it.
Apple made $80B (BILLION) dollars in iPhone revenue last year. 5% of that is $4B (FOUR BILLION DOLLARS!). You'd better fucking believe $4B in revenue is worth putting up with an UNFATHOMABLY MASSIVE amount of "bullshit".
Oh, and no need for "piss poor" anecdotes - NY and SF police have stated over 40% of all robberies in their cities now involve cell phones. So yes, tons - literally metric tons - of cell phones are stolen every year in those cities alone...
You can argue all you want that it's not a viable business model to not disable cell phones, but large parts of Europe already have a cell phone "kill switch" and it has virtually eliminated cell phone thefts.
-- Will program for bandwidth