iPhone Thefts Drop, Microsoft And Google To Introduce Smartphone Kill Switch

Microsoft and Google will introduce “kill switches” to their respective smartphone operating systems, the New York Attorney General announced today.

As part of the Attorney General’s “Secure Our Smartphones” initiative, Eric Schneiderman announced in a report today that an agreement had been reached with the tech giants. The kill switch will render a smartphone useless once it has been activated remotely, making less appealing to thieves.

Apple introduced the kill switch – or “Activation Lock” as it’s known – to iOS 7 in September last year and, according the report, iPhone thefts have radically dropped as a result. “In the first five months of 2014, robberies and grand larcenies involving Apple products dropped 19% and 29%, respectively, compared to the same time period from 2013. The decrease in Apple thefts far surpassed the citywide decrease in all robberies (-10%) and all grand larcenies (-18%).”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2014/06/19/iphone-thefts-drop-microsoft-and-google-to-introduce-kill-smartphone-kill-switch/