Calls for smartphone “kill switches” are growing louder.
Elected officials from Philadelphia have joined New York, San Francisco and London in calling for smartphone makers to come up with a quick and easy way to dismantle their devices, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Monday.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Pennsylvania AG Kathleen Kane, and Philadelphia Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown have joined the “Secure Our Smartphones” initiative, or SOS, launched by Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón in June.
The initiative aims to cut down on stolen smartphones and other tech savvy gadgets like tablets.
The secondary market for phones has become so big that it has been dubbed “Apple Picking.”
The profits from such crimes are no small apples either. In Hong Kong, for example, iPhones can be worth more than $2,000 a piece, Schneiderman said.
In the US, one in three thefts involves a mobile communications device. Last year, 20 percent of New York City robberies targeted a gadget; in San Francisco, the number is 50 percent.
Philadelphia may be suffering a similar wave, Schneiderman said.
“Though most categories of crime are down in Philadelphia and nationwide, robberies are on the rise because of a spike in smartphone thefts,” Schneiderman said.
A so-called kill switch would allow users to shut down their phones remotely, most likely through the carrier. The downside of a self-destruct button is that it could be abused by hackers, security experts said.
Apple has fashioned an anti-theft alternative: a fingerprint sensor that only allows a phone to be unlocked by the user’s distinct biometrics.
But fingerprinting makes some folks uneasy, especially as it has emerged that tech companies and phone carriers are sharing customer data with the National Security Administration.
Some experts also fear that the technology will lead someone to lose a finger to a desperate cell phone thief.