California’s Lawmakers demand kill switch

[GURPS]

California’s Lawmakers Unable to Use App Store


California’s liberal lawmakers proudly announced today that they are unable to locate, and take advantage, of Apple’s App Store, or Google’s Play Store. To remedy their inability to fully utilize today’s smartphone technology they have decided to instead, introduce legislation requiring smartphone manufacturers to provide a “kill switch” on each device sold in the state.

What is a “kill switch” you ask? Well, for those of us who have taken the five minutes required to learn what an app is, and how to install them on our phone, a “kill switch” will function the same way as the “Find my Phone” app works. For those who don’t like, or are not familiar with, the “Find My Phone” app, you might also recognize a “kill switch” as being similar to “Where’s my Droid”, “Lookout”, “Android Lost”, “Find My Phone”, “GadgetTrak”, “Device Locator”, “IHound”, “If Found +”, “Mobile Spy”, “Phone Trace”, “LoJack”….you get the idea. There are a ton of apps currently available on various app marketplaces that allow users to trace, lock, or delete, their phone. Best of all, most are free or cost less than a dollar. Unfortunately, such technology eludes the lawmakers whose very districts cover Silicon Valley, the birthplace of Apple, Google, and thousands of third-party app developers.

California lawmakers want to require 'kill switch' on smartphones
The ability to make mobile devices inoperable if they're stolen 'is critical to reducing robberies,' L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti says.


SACRAMENTO — Citing skyrocketing thefts of smartphones and tablets, officials proposed Thursday that California become the first state to require the devices to be sold with "kill switches" that render them inoperable when stolen.

State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and other lawmakers said they plan to introduce such legislation with the support of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Police Chief Charlie Beck. L.A. had a 12% increase in mobile-device thefts in 2012, the most recent figures available.

The theft of such devices now accounts for nearly one-third of robberies in the United States, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
"This legislation is critical to reducing robberies," Garcetti wrote to legislators this week.

San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon said more than half the robberies in his city involve theft of mobile devices. He said the industry has debated the use of deterrent technology for too long. "The wireless industry must take action to end the victimization of its customers," he said in a statement.

Politicians NOT smarter, than a Smart Phone ......
IIRC, the iPhone comes with 'Find my iPhone' ofc you have to configure this ....

I am guessing the Mr. Gov. wants to be able to do this, instead of relying on the end user

maybe they should BAN Cell Phone Companies after the big 4

I heard a lot of stolen idevices are shipped over seas, where Russians do not care where they came from

Some industry critics have questioned manufacturers' interest in theft deterrents because victims typically buy new devices, increasing sales.

Megan Boken of Illinois was killed in 2012 when an armed man tried to steal her iPhone. Her father, Paul, has become an activist on the issue and supports Leno's idea.

"The theft of a smartphone ended my daughter's life and forever changed mine," Boken said. The upcoming legislation would "shut down the market for stolen smartphones, which will end the victimization of other innocent smartphone users and save lives."

 

[b23hqb]

I wouldn't mind the ability for me to kill my device if it was stolen. I'll way most likely never see it again, and would be worth it to disable any info on it. Just to make it worthless to the perp that stole it would be worth it. A personal, individual observation on my part.

 

[aps45819]

I wouldn't mind the ability for me to kill my device if it was stolen. I'll way most likely never see it again, and would be worth it to disable any info on it. Just to make it worthless to the perp that stole it would be worth it. A personal, individual observation on my part.

Maybe a small thermite charge that would destroy the phone and the hand of anybody holding it

 

[b23hqb]

Maybe a small thermite charge that would destroy the phone and the hand of anybody holding it

Cool. As long as only the real owner can set it off, and only while it is being used by the unlawful holder. But me thinks powers over us - like NSA and others with big brother, just might set it off while the real owners are in possession. Just because they can.

Can't wait for the horrified peeps to cash in on this.

 

[blazinlow89]

About a month ago the fiance lost her phone, forgetting to install WMD after some rom install went horribly wrong we though it was gone for good. We knew it still had battery (rang when called but was on silent), but thought we left it at a restaurant or something.

Logged into her gmail account and remotely isntalled it through the play store. Waited 10 minutes and sent the GPS command, info came back which said it was at our address. Sent the ring command and found it in one of the other rooms.

So nice being able to do that without having the phone. Of course if it had been off it could have been another few days before we found it.

 

[GURPS]

Smartphone 'kill switches' could save owners $2.6B a year—no wonder carriers hate the idea
Summary: While the phone makers can afford the small financial hit to their overall annual profits, the carriers can't, legislators and regulators believe.

Duckworth said that based on his survey of 1,200 smartphone owners, 83 percent of smartphone owners believe a kill-switch would reduce overall device theft. He also estimated that Americans spend about $580 million replacing stolen phones each year, and $4.8 billion on device insurance.

It's a problem that Members of Congress and US state legislators have been scratching their heads over for more than a year-and-a-half. While the mobile phone makers are showing signs of compromise, the wider efforts are reportedly being hampered by a collective pushback from the cellular industry.

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon met with the four largest smartphone makers—Apple, Google and Motorola, Samsung and Microsoft—in July 2013 to discuss plans to include such security features.

Two months later, Apple fired off the security starting pistol by including Activation Lock, a feature that locks down iPhones and iPads if they are lost or stolen.

Google and Microsoft in the past year also added anti-theft technology to their mobile software in efforts to cut down on device thefts. Google's Android software and Microsoft's Windows Phone perform many of the same functions as Apple's new security feature.

right and this is going to stop millions of stolen iPhones from getting shipped overseas where nobody cares about American Kill Switches

 

[Tilted]

Politicians NOT smarter, than a Smart Phone ......
IIRC, the iPhone comes with 'Find my iPhone' ofc you have to configure this ....

I am guessing the Mr. Gov. wants to be able to do this, instead of relying on the end user

maybe they should BAN Cell Phone Companies after the big 4

I heard a lot of stolen idevices are shipped over seas, where Russians do not care where they came from

The proposals I've seen seem to be modeled on Activation Lock, which was introduced with iOS 7. It does a bit more than Find my iPhone and has generally been praised by law enforcement as being the best yet deterrent against smartphone theft. I think what legislators proposing so-called kill switches want is for all smartphones to incorporate a feature of that kind.

right and this is going to stop millions of stolen iPhones from getting shipped overseas where nobody cares about American Kill Switches

It isn't clear to me how shipping stolen phones overseas gets around Activation Lock (or would get around other so-called kill switches that worked much the same way). I'm not saying Activation Lock is 100% unbeatable, of course it isn't (or I wouldn't think it would be), but what are they going to do overseas - spoof Apple's servers? Activation Lock ties the hardware itself to an iCloud account, and won't allow certain things to be done with that phone until the account id and password are entered (to turn off Find my iPhone). If you somehow manage to wipe the phone completely and reinstall the OS clean, Apple's servers won't activate the phone without that account info.

Have people been able to get around that Apple servers' activation requirement? Again, I would think somehow some could, but I haven't heard of confirmed cases where they've been able to yet. And, regardless, Activation Lock goes further in making a smartphone thief's job more difficult than any other software solution I've heard of.

At any rate, I'm of course not in support of these kinds of proposals. But I don't think they'd affect iPhones, iPhones already have what they're proposing all smartphones have.

 

[glhs837]

The main point is the government has no place legislating a requirement when there already exist, in the marketplace, perfectly suitable products that do exactly what the politicians say they want. some do more, some do less, but this whole thing is more of a protect the stupid from themselves sort of attitude that needs to ease up some, IMO.

 

[GURPS]

The proposals I've seen seem to be modeled on Activation Lock, which was introduced with iOS 7.
At any rate, I'm of course not in support of these kinds of proposals.

I am not sure about the activation lock ... but access to the physical device gives you all sorts of options ...

guys experimenting with hardware have founds all sorts of ways around locks .... look at jail breaking

 

[merc669]

The main point is the government has no place legislating a requirement when there already exist, in the marketplace, perfectly suitable products that do exactly what the politicians say they want. some do more, some do less, but this whole thing is more of a protect the stupid from themselves sort of attitude that needs to ease up some, IMO.

Just remember; Your Government Knows What Is Good For You. So Just Sit Back And Let Us Control You......