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Smartphone Theft Drops After Spread of Kill Switches
alphadogg writes "Thefts involving smartphones have declined dramatically in three major cities since manufacturers began implementing 'kill switches' that allow the phones to be turned off remotely if they are stolen, authorities said on Tuesday. The number of stolen iPhones dropped by 40 percent in San Francisco and 25 percent in New York in the 12 months after Apple added a kill switch to its devices in September 2013. In London, smartphone theft dropped by half, according to an announcement by officials in the three cities.
We knew it all along.
He has two pregnant baby mama's to support!
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
I still see lots of people selling phones for "parts" and quietly noting that the device is locked and they somehow don't have the password. So people are obviously still stealing phones without knowing they can't actually use them.
Remember the primary concern when these laws were proposed. As soon as criminals discover a way to maliciously activate the kill switch on a non-stolen phone, there will be serious fallout. Imagine the ransomware. There are similar concerns with law enforcement, who have demonstrated a desire to be able to wipe or forever disable a phone they've confiscated (usually one documenting their misdeeds).
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Perhaps there were fewer blacks around... LOL.
I have concerns about such laws mandating kill switches too. But if manufacturers offer the feature and let customers opt-in, I'd think some reasonable trade-off can be achieved.
These comments are mine; I do not speak for my employer.
I think this is a bad law / implementation. That will only reduce the sales of new phones. That is going to be bad for the economy, ahem.
It's funny how states that allow most citizens to carry concealed handguns don't have a problem with bad guys grabbing someone's phone, knocking them over, and trying to run off.
I wonder if CA, NY, and the rest of them will ever figure out that "An armed society is a polite society."
Well, at least among these three cities, it appears that London has the most intelligent phone thieves and New York the least.
My prediction, and not exactly a stretch to predict: Cars will be next.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
"we are working as fast as we can to re-enable the 207 million phones disabled in last nights vicious attack on 'merica"
Around here, they don't steal the cellphone because it is valuable. They steal it so they have more of a head start before you can call the police.
Make America grate again!
That's right! ...my bad for forgetting it's already here.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
The killswitches seem to have a much wider effects than realised by these insightful articles.
Murder rate at the same time in San Francisco
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/ar...
and New York
http://gothamist.com/2015/01/0...
seem to have also decined!
I don't see any signs of them doing a proper statistical analysis. Did they even bother to look at cities where kill switches had not been mandated to compare the rates? There are a vast array of reasons why there could be a "drop" in phone thefts, rates with significant changes from month to month/year to year, national decrease, etc.
So presumably all the white idiots on here who are calling other white people "racists" for pointing out higher levels of black criminality want to go and live in Haiti? Why not? Not 'racist', are you?
Why waste time waiting for your once white country to be turned into a third world hellhole, where YOU, white 'liberal', are a minority? Why not move to some third world shithole in Africa and INSTANTLY become a white minority?
Oh, wait... that would require you to have actually thought through all of this nonsense. Why are liberals so incredibly stupid?
MOST white people want to live in all white countries. Why wouldn't we? Who are YOU to decide who I have to live with? You must be a 'white supremacist' - you must believe that white people make BETTER countries than non-whites, otherwise, why are you so worried about your black 'pets' not being able to continue living around 'whitey'?
No mention about Android devices that run Google OS. Hello? Not everyone uses a $500 Iphone. I have a $80 Motorola Luge for Verizon.
Do they activate the killswitch if you are behind on monthly payments?
Actually, the decrease really came about because of the passing of Obamacare.
If my phone is stolen and I activate the "kill switch" can a person still restore the phone and use their own sim card, or is the "kill" all the way down to preventing a DFU restore?
They're stolen for PARTS.
O RLY? Parting out a bike takes effort and most used bike parts are worth very little. Most stolen bikes are not fancy ones with valuable parts. There simply isn't enough demand for crappy parts to account for the number of crappy stolen bikes; most are sold intact. Having lived in a number of college towns (where there are lots of bikes to be stolen), I know several examples of stolen bikes reappearing intact with a new owner. That's even been the case for expensive bikes, which evidently were not sold for parts. I realize that's anecdotal evidence, but it's not inline with your absurd proposition that the entire point of bike thefts is to sell them for parts.
From a simple blacklist of the imei or esn. AT and fee blacklist the imei when they don't pay for the phone but not when it gets stolen.
Flatlander Woman.
Comment removed based on user account deletion