Proposed California law demands anti-theft 'kill switch' in all smartphones California may soon become the first US state to require mobile phone makers to include a feature that can remotely disable their handsets in the event they are stolen. A new law proposed by California state Senator Mark Leno and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón would require all smartphones sold in the state to …
What they really need to do is use the tracking facilities of these phones and actually do their job to trace them to the crooks. But no. that's more like actual police work and far too costly and time consuming for them right? Ever reported your phone stolen? Have the police ever done anything to try and trace it? I rest my case.
How about a screen buster, which physically burns out the driver IC behind the panel?
A simple one shot resistor fuse would do, built into the package.
Also very obvious as it would also stop the phone turning on at all, and as the screen is the most expensive part the phone would then be worthless.
Bonus, also burn out any inserted microSD and SIM with a voltage pulse ;-)
Added bonus, have the CPU run in HCF mode so the battery rapidly drains, but also broadcasting the phone's location on an intenationally agreed band.
Nearly 25% of phones reported stolen or lost are recovered within 12 hours of the initial report. You're talking about killing off an awful lot of phones whose biggest sin was being too thin and falling down the back of a couch or between car seats of being put in the refrigerator by mistake or left in a jacket you forgot at work.
the crowd sourced gatherings that we have seen in the mid-east, just might have to resort to 60's style communications to get a decent protest into action. And no one will be able to video it... when the authorities brick all the phones in the area !!
Try making the phone into a snitch... it takes photos and sends them out with GPS markers. ps. and the GPS needs to resolve vertical height. my daughter tracked her phone to a 3 story apt building, but could not resolve which floor it was on. When the law knocked on the door, it went dead. tossed in a metal box. No evidence, no arrest, no phone.
Law enforcement in the US doesn't show much interest in recovering stolen phones. In large part because States don't prosecute their theft as a felony, regardless of the phones value. They'll prosecute the robbery/mugging or the breaking and entering/unauthorized access to private property if they can, but unless they actually catch you selling it, the actual phone might get you petty theft or unlawful possession. Even then they often successfully argue they'd just found the phone and hadn't reported it, most States give you 48 hours to report found goods. Unless you can positively ID the person for robbing you, it is hard to prove they didn't just find the phone.
Also, giving law enforcement search and seizure authority based in consumer GPS data is a stunningly bad idea, especially in high density areas. Although fairly accurate, their official tolerances aren't right enough to serve as legal data. Although the device seems to be in Apt. 313, it could be anywhere within 50' and in six or seven different residences. The police can't be coming in my home because my sketchy neighbor stole your daughters phone.
Even in targeted GPS tracking operations where they use higher tolerance devices, the evidence by itself usually isn't admissible as stand alone evidence. It is used as corroborating evidence of a crime they've got other evidence for.
I'm not sure what the solution to phone theft is, but giving the police more power isn't the right answer.
"the crowd sourced gatherings that we have seen in the mid-east, just might have to resort to 60's style communications to get a decent protest into action. And no one will be able to video it... when the authorities brick all the phones in the area !!"
You forget. THEY control the NETWORK. The most common tactic they use in such a case is blackouts. What's to say they also don't OTA updates with spyware built into them?
I doubt that bargain bin phones are really the issue these days. By the time your IMEA is blocked you have a toy that can't connect to the mobile network . Given the specs of landfill android and winphone that market will only shrink.
A more likely scenario is that your phone is still stolen, pulled apart and then sold as a refurbished battery, screen and ųSD card.
You are all missing the point, because you are thinking of mobile phone theft as an acquisitive crime when the vast majority of mobile thefts are deprivatory in nature. Mobile phones are practically giveaway items anyway. When some thieving toerag steals your mobile phone it is not because he wants it for himself, but so that you do not have it. Usually, the aim of taking it is simply to slow you down reporting the robbery, to give them time to empty your bank accounts using the PINs forced out of you at knifepoint.
This is why the ability to disable a mobile phone remotely does almost nothing to deter theft in real life. A stolen mobile phone doesn't have to be of any use to anyone -- it's enough, from the thief's point of view, for it not to be of any use to you.
Stop faffing around with the criminals - back to the old ways and off with them hands for theft - only have to do a few for the message to spread. It's ridiculous to have to dance around an issue like that and enforce changes with financial implications for everyone but the thief.
Oh, and a life-time ban for applying for any sort if disability benefits related to the punishment.
Probably because if it came to that, crooks would refuse to be taken alive, upping the violence level. Also, don't forget, America can't chop off hands due to the 8th Amendment, and even if violence escalates, capital punishment is not allowed in Europe.
Besides, psychological studies point to punishment not being an effective deterrent: the criminal mind typically believing in getting away with it and not being punished at all, meaning they don't look that far ahead.
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