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Prosecutors Push For Anti-Phone-Theft Kill Switches

Posted by Soulskill on from the who-doesn't-love-a-kill-switch? dept.

New submitter EdPbllips writes "Law enforcement officials nationwide are demanding the creation of a 'kill switch' that would render smartphones inoperable after they are stolen, New York's top prosecutor said Thursday in a clear warning to the world's smartphone manufacturers. Citing statistics showing that 1 in 3 robberies nationwide involve the theft of a mobile phone, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the formation of a coalition of law enforcement agencies devoted to stamping out what he called an 'epidemic' of smartphone robberies. 'All too often, these robberies turn violent,' said Schneiderman, who was joined at a news conference by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon. 'There are assaults. There are murders.'" Apple described a system like this in their presentation about iOS 7 at WWDC.

4 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Don't we already have this? by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Something similar has been available for YEARS- all you need do is ask the phone company to invalidate the IMEI number.and/or activate the memory wipe software built into Android, iOS, and Windows phones.

    Has Symbian and Blackberry been left out of this feature? I would have thought consumer demand for it would have produced it on those platforms as well long ago.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    1. Re:Don't we already have this? by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Informative

      Something similar has been available for YEARS- all you need do is ask the phone company to invalidate the IMEI number.and/or activate the memory wipe software built into Android, iOS, and Windows phones.

      There's still no nationwide database in the US of all stolen IMEI numbers. Even if you tell your carrier that your phone was stolen and they bother to invalidate the number, AFAIK there's nothing stopping the theif from using the phone on a different carrier (assuming the phone is compatible, obviously.)

      --
      There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  2. Re:Okay then by JeffAtl · · Score: 3, Informative

    Who's going to inform all of the would-be muggers that the world of cell phones suddenly changed?

    The fence they use to offload their stolen phones.

  3. Re: What a great idea! by alen · · Score: 4, Informative

    A lot of stolen phones are shipped outside the USA. A kill switch would render them useless