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

[tlhIngan]

If someone steals phones, lets the battery drain in Faraday cage bag, then parts them out, they will still make some decent cash. A 100% Apple touch screen still goes for a C-note or two. A finger print scanner or other items are not cheap either. Android stuff can go into a parts bag and be useful here and there.

The problem is "decent operation". Once you're into this, the costs go up significantly, and the price for an Apple screen isn't that high (if you have protection, it's $50, and many street sellers do it for very low cost).

A single person on the street isn't likely to be that - you'd have to recruit an army of them. And once it happens, the exposure goes way up and annoying law-enforcement type people start poking their heads around.

Draining the battery does no good, either - Apple phones will re-lock if you try to reflash the OS - part of the activation process is to enter in the owner's apple ID and password. (This has hurt the resale value if people forget to unlock the phone prior to sale).

Heck, most people already are wary of buying stolen phones. I remember a few years back a kid was trying to sell 4-5 phones, most likely stolen. Kid was still there hours later trying to fence them, and all that happened in the end was he threw them against a wall and smashed them, wasting a whole day trying to sell it so he might as well have fun with it.