Apple was the first to implement this measure which resulted consequently in the company noticing the amount of iPhone theft greatly reducing, seeing as thieves were now not as determined to steal one since all they would be getting was a bricked device. Even in politics, there’s a bill pushing for this to be mandatory for all phones in the US. Not just Google is following suit, but Microsoft as well.
At the moment, all Android devices come with the Android Device Manager feature which can be switched on or off in your phone’s settings, which allows you to track the phone, make it ring, wipe its contents with a reset, among some other features..
We aren’t sure at the moment how this so-called ‘’factory reset protection solution” feature to render a phone totally useless will be added to the existing features, but we will hopefully find out when the Google I/O kicks off.
During the Federal Communications Commission meeting, the Chairman Tom Wheeler said:
“It’s not enough” to offer phone-disabling systems that work only if consumers choose to use them, Wheeler said. “It is time to have an automatic, common solution.”
US Senator Amy Cloubar also supports the idea when she said:
“We’re never going to get to the end of incentives to steal unless the thieves know they’re stealing a brick,” Klobuchar said at the meeting.
Many thinks that having this function is a great idea. If someone steals my phone, I don’t want them to be able to use it at all. Needless to say, wiping it is always a good idea, but rendering it unusable is even better.
Crimes related to iPhones -- robberies, muggings and theft, often involving violence against the victims -- were reaching epidemic proportions both in the United States and abroad, leading Gascon, Schneiderman and the mayor of London to set up the Secure Our Smartphones (S.O.S.) Initiative with the participation of law enforcement agencies.
Robberies and grand larcenies involving Apple products fell 19 percent and 29 percent respectively year over year in New York City from January to May, while the same crimes involving Samsung smartphones, which did not have a kill switch until April, increased by more than 40 percent, according to a report the Initiative released last week.
CTIA, the Wireless Association, which represents carriers, wrote the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in June, arguing that kill switches would brick mobile devices, making them impossible to reactivate or reuse.
CTIA also argued that hackers could spoof a kill command, disabling entire groups of mobile devices owned by an organization such as the U.S. Department of Defense or a law enforcement agency.
CTIA also offered consumers apps for download, which could remotely erase, track and lock stolen devices, although it worked only for 4G/LTE devices.
Why the Industry Hates Kill Switches
Implementing the kill switch "was never a technology problem," said Carl Howe, a vice president of research at the Yankee Group, pointing out that Apple, BlackBerry and others have been able to wipe devices remotely for years.
"Carriers saw a nice revenue stream from phone insurance and replacement phones, and they didn't want to incur the coordination efforts and costs in implementing industry-wide kill switches without some revenue to go with.
What do you think of this new feature for Android devices?
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