Do Kill Switches Deter Cellphone Theft? (arstechnica.com)

evolutionary shares an article from Ars Technica: San Francisco's district attorney says that a California state law mandating "theft-deterring technological solutions" for smartphones has resulted in a precipitous drop in such robberies. Those measures primarily include a remote kill switch after a phone has been stolen that would allow a phone to be disabled, withstanding even a hard reset. Such a kill switch has become standard in all iPhones ("Activation Lock") and Android phones ("Device Protection") since 2015... When measured from the peak in 2013, "overall robberies involving smartphones have declined an astonishing 50 percent... Because of this hard-fought legislation, stealing a smartphone is no longer worth the trouble, and that means the devices we use every day no longer make us targets for violent crime."

Comments

Re:Stolen phones are still valuable for parts

[93 Escort Wagon]

The only kill switch that would truly deter theft is one that would actually kill the thief.

Given that it's demonstrably true that smartphone thefts have fallen precipitously since these features have become standard, the onus is on you to provide some actual evidence your statement has any basis in fact whatsoever.