Second Federal 'Kill-switch' Bill Introduced Targeting Smartphone Theft

Posted by timothy on Tuesday March 4, 2014 @05:20AM from the there's-a-downside-to-this dept.

alphadogg writes "A second federal bill that proposes 'kill-switch' technology be made mandatory in smartphones as a means to reduce theft of the devices was introduced Monday. The kill switch would allow consumers to remotely wipe and disable a stolen smartphone and is considered by proponents to be a key tool in combating the increasing number of smartphone robberies. The Smartphone Theft Prevention Act was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives as H.R. 4065 by Jose Serrano, a New York Democrat, as a companion to a Senate bill that was introduced Feb. 13. The two follow a similar law proposed by officials in California last month."

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Re:"... as a means to reduce theft." by DriveDog · 2014-03-04 05:25 · Score: 3, Interesting

Yeah, I wondered about that. Wouldn't this be a double-edged sword, for theft? Either discourages theft, or encourages hiding the victim's body so nobody will disable the phone?