Public officials from around the country have formed a partnership to lobby smartphone firms to introduce anti-theft measures. They’ve kicked off with a summit of the major companies.
The partnership, dubbed the “Secure Our Smartphones Iniative”, brings together the attorneys general of seven states, city prosecutors, police chiefs, local political officials and safety and consumer groups.
The group cites a statistic that 113 cellphones are lost or stolen in the US every minute, with a high proportion involving violent theft. It also says that 1.6 million people were hit by robberies or attempted robberies from criminals demanding they hand over their smartphones.
San Francisco district attorney George Gascon says it’s a simple issue: “The cell phone industry cannot ignore that smartphone theft is a crime that can be fixed with a technological solution.”
Though that might be something of an overstatement, the officials are convinced smartphone theft would drop dramatically if crime victims could take action to stop a thief using the phone or resetting it so it could be sold on. They’ve repeatedly called for some sort of killswitch feature, though gave a cautious welcome to a planned Apple feature that will make resetting a phone impossible without a password.
The group says that as well as working to encourage manufacturers to introduce a kill switch and other measures, it will explore the economics behind the issue from the perspective of the manufacturer and cellphone carriers. Some critics have suggested manufacturers have little interest in reducing theft because somebody who has a phone stolen will need to buy a new one, boosting sales. Security firm Lookout estimated the total costs to US consumers replacing lost or stolen phones could hit $30 billion a year.
Representatives of Apple, Microsoft, Motorola (owned by Google) and Samsung are today meeting at the officer of New York state attorney general Eric Schneidermen, who co-chairs the group with Gascon.
Posted in smartphone | 1 Comment » Read more from John Lister
View the original article here
The group cites a statistic that 113 cellphones are lost or stolen in the US every minute, with a high proportion involving violent theft. It also says that 1.6 million people were hit by robberies or attempted robberies from criminals demanding they hand over their smartphones.
San Francisco district attorney George Gascon says it’s a simple issue: “The cell phone industry cannot ignore that smartphone theft is a crime that can be fixed with a technological solution.”
Though that might be something of an overstatement, the officials are convinced smartphone theft would drop dramatically if crime victims could take action to stop a thief using the phone or resetting it so it could be sold on. They’ve repeatedly called for some sort of killswitch feature, though gave a cautious welcome to a planned Apple feature that will make resetting a phone impossible without a password.
The group says that as well as working to encourage manufacturers to introduce a kill switch and other measures, it will explore the economics behind the issue from the perspective of the manufacturer and cellphone carriers. Some critics have suggested manufacturers have little interest in reducing theft because somebody who has a phone stolen will need to buy a new one, boosting sales. Security firm Lookout estimated the total costs to US consumers replacing lost or stolen phones could hit $30 billion a year.
Representatives of Apple, Microsoft, Motorola (owned by Google) and Samsung are today meeting at the officer of New York state attorney general Eric Schneidermen, who co-chairs the group with Gascon.
Posted in smartphone | 1 Comment » Read more from John Lister
View the original article here
