Smartphone thefts down sharply after kill-switch added

The number of thefts and robberies of smartphones, particularly iPhones, have fallen sharply in New York, London and San Francisco, data released yesterday showed, PC World reported.

Law enforcement officials, who had been calling for including a ''kill switch'' in all smartphones, hailed the news as proof of the technology's deterrence prowess.

Though San Francisco saw overall robberies and thefts fall 22 per cent from 2013 to 2014, those involving smartphones were down 27 per cent,  those of iPhones were down 40 per cent.

While New York saw smartphone theft drop 16 per cent overall,  iPhone thefts were down 25 per cent.

London registered a 40-per cent drop in smartphone thefts in a year.

''The huge drops in smartphone theft that have occurred since the kill switch has been on the market are evidence that our strategy is making people safer in our cities, and across the world,'' said New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman in a statement.

The kill switch is a software lock that can be activated remotely when a phone was lost or stolen and could wipe personal data from a phone and ''brick it'' so it could not be reused or reprogrammed, CNET reported.

The switch was introduced with iOS 7 in September 2013. The lock requires users' Apple ID and password before someone could erase and reactivate their device.

The device effectively becomes useless to thieves hoping to resell it for a quick buck. Android 5.0 Lollipop has a similar feature called Factory Reset Protection, which requires the owner's Google password in order to wipe the phone.

London mayor Boris Johnson, San Francisco district attorney George Gascon and New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman were among those who had been calling for kill switches as a way to cut down on thefts. In some US states, it is a requirement under the law that smartphones come equipped with kill features.

California's law will take effect from 1 July, even though  smartphone theft had fallen as device makers had already been implementing the feature, according to Gascon.

Gascon told Reuters that the wireless industry continued to roll out sophisticated new features, but preventing their own customers from being the target of a crime was the coolest technology they could bring to market.