Other Kill Switch to prevent Apple Picking. Will it help?

[tornado]

Ever heard of Apple Picking ? it is a slang one of the most common theft these days - stealing of smartphones.

A bill has been passed by the California Senate which will mandate the need for putting kill switch in smartphones by manufacturers by July 2015.

Kill switch is a piece of software which will be present in smartphones and will block the phone, once you call a specific number when your phone is missing. In a way, it will 'brick' your phone. It will lock the device and erase the user data and contacts, once you found the phone, the process can be reversed.

A lot of foreign stolen smartphones are already sold in other countries since the IMEI numbers are only blocked on origin country's networks.

In India also cellphone theft is prevalent , do you think such techniques will be put into place here? or if employed will it work?

Source

 

[rdst_1]

I think it will only work for data protection. Once the thief installs the firmware again, the phone should start working again.
Apple's current implementation is also very cool but it still allows the person to keep using the stolen phone if the thief doesn't reset the phone.

 

[vivek.krishnan]

There used to be a process to block a phone on the IMEI, sadly the telecom operator idiots in the name of convenience have not implemented it.

A kill switch is a great idea, provided it works, and the phone is unusable, even after resetting the devices

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

once you found the phone, the process can be reversed.

Won't the thief find a way to do this as well?

 

[6pack]

Some sort of portable GPS system should be put inside the phone. With a software interface, user should be able to put restrictions on where the phone will work. If it goes outside a city it will stop working. There should be a two factor pin type authentication too to prevent thieves from adjusting the restrictions.

 

[rdst_1]

Some sort of portable GPS system should be put inside the phone. With a software interface, user should be able to put restrictions on where the phone will work. If it goes outside a city it will stop working. There should be a two factor pin type authentication too to prevent thieves from adjusting the restrictions.

A skilled thief can still Jtag the mainboard and reinstall the firmware, at least with most android phones.