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Stolen phones: how police and the wireless industry are protecting a popular target
Stolen smartphones are an epidemic, and both New York City and San Francisco have sworn to fight back. After NYC saw its crime rate increase for the first time in twenty years based on Apple device thefts -- and San Francisco saw one too many citizens get hurt in muggings — city prosecutors embarked on an initative to curb the crime by convincing smartphone makers to offer a "kill switch" to remotely disable a phone.
However, the wireless industry had already been working to police the problem itself with an international database of devices that shouldn't be activated. Will either of these solutions work?
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October 15, 2014
Android Lollipop has a 'kill switch' that can make stolen phones useless
Lock can stop a phone from being reset by thieves
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August 25, 2014
California's smartphone kill switch bill has been signed into law
Law that requires anti-theft tools out of the box goes into effect next July
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September 22, 2013
NYPD cops are telling people to upgrade to iOS 7 to fight crime
Apple's new security features could cut down on theft
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April 10, 2013
Missing in action: why doesn't Google help consumers find their lost Android phones?
Users are left to fend for themselves on the world's biggest smartphone platform
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July 6, 2012
AT&T to launch new blocking service for stolen devices on July 10th
AT&T is set to launch a new service allowing users to block individual devices while keeping their accounts intact.
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April 9, 2012
Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint team with FCC to track stolen cellphones in the US
Calling cell phone theft a "growing epidemic," the Federal Communications Commission announced today that all four major US cellphone carriers have agreed to deny cell and data service to stolen phones, and contribute the serial numbers of those phones to a national database.