Back in April we heard that a number of companies had committed to bring anti theft features to their smartphones, and now a bill has been passed by the California Senate, that will see a smartphone kill switch added to devices by 2015.
Last month, Samsung, Apple, Google, HTC, Nokia and Microsoft all agreed to make smartphones harder to steal, and now this technology will become law in California by July of next year.
From the 25th of July, any smartphones that are sold in California must come with security measures to protect the device, and Apple announced that their devices already includes the technology.
“Apple phones and tablets can be protected with applications that allow the owner to track the location of the device and remotely set a passcode or erase all personal data if stolen.”
It is not clear as yet on whether Apple’s current security is enough to meet the new laws, although we suspect that Apple will update their devices to conform with the new rules.
We can expect all of the above manufacturers to introduce new features in their smartphones, to make them more secure in the event that they are stolen.
At the moment, the majority of stolen smartphones can be wiped, have a new IMEI number installed, and can then be sold as a completely new device.
A complete kill switch solution would stop these practices, and hopefully this would have a significant impact in reducing the amount of smartphones that are stolen.
Source App Advice
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