iPhone Kill Switch praised as phone thefts tumble
New smartphones aren't only coveted by regular users but by thieves, too, though the iPhone's "kill switch" Activation Lock is being credited with cutting thefts significantly across three major cities. The feature, added in iOS 7 back in 2013, remotely locks down a lost or stolen iPhone so that it cannot be activated in future without the original credentials, something intended to make such thefts less appealing to those committing street crime. That's paying off in three cities – New York, San Francisco, and London – where having a phone snatched has traditionally been a significant peril, new research from each confirms.
In New York, for instance, iPhone thefts dropped 25-percent in the two years between January 2013 and December 2014, while cellphone robberies overall dropped 16-percent.
On the opposite coast, meanwhile, San Francisco iPhone thefts dropped 40-percent, and phone thefts overall dropped 27-percent.
Over in London, the monthly average for the number of phones stolen has halved since September 2013, officials said.
The three cities had been instrumental in pushing the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative, pressuring smartphone manufacturers to add kill switch functionality to their devices and hopefully cut the street appeal of stolen goods.
Signs that the system was working have been simmering up in the months since. In June last year, the Initiative released early numbers that confirmed drops in thefts across the board.
Back in December, the FCC lent its support to kill switch technology, calling out Apple's implementation. "Preliminary statistics following Apple's implementing Activation Lock as part of Find My iPhone appears to validate the solution as an effective tool to deter smartphone crime," the agency said.
The kill switch's success looks unlikely be limited to iPhone, however. Android 5.0 Lollipop added its own support – albeit turned off by default – while Qualcomm has baked the functionality into its upcoming Snapdragon 810 chipset.
Windows 10 for phones, meanwhile, is expected to add a kill switch sometime in 2015. Next up for the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative is pushing manufacturers to enable the kill switch by default.
VIA Reuters