New York Attorney General Presses Apple and Google on Smartphone Thefts

MacRumors · May 13, 2013

With New York City seeing significant increases in the theft of Apple products in recent years -- up 40 percent in 2012 from the prior year -- New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has written to a number of smartphone manufacturers to ask what the companies are doing to combat the thefts of their devices, reports Bloomberg.

San Francisco district attorney Georce Gascón has previously pressed Apple about the possibility of a 'kill switch' in iOS devices to disable them if stolen, but said he was 'underwhelmed' by Apple's response.

A national stolen phone database that was rolled out recently has reportedly had little effect on smartphone thefts.

In his letter to the companies, Schneiderman cited the April 2012 murder of a 26-year-old chef at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan who was killed for his iPhone on his way home, and a February incident this year in which three people were stabbed on a subway platform in the Queens section of New York in a fight over an iPhone.

Schneiderman said he would be "especially concerned" if the companies, which may have failed to live up to representations to consumers about safety and security, have benefited from increased sales of replacement devices.

While Apple and other smartphone makers would receive some minor monetary benefit from victims purchasing replacement phones, the revenue would be a drop in the bucket compared to the overall smartphone market.

Additionally, the goodwill generated by disabling stolen phones would more than outweigh any fiscal impact. Apple does offer a free service called 'Find My iPhone' that can erase or lock stolen phones, but erasing a phone does not render the phone unusable.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: New York Attorney General Presses Apple and Google on Smartphone Thefts

bdkennedy1 · May 13, 2013

Uhhhhhhh, fingerprint sensor?

al0513 · May 13, 2013

MacRumors said:
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With New York City seeing significant increases in the theft of Apple products in recent years -- up 40 percent in 2012 from the prior year -- New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has written to a number of smartphone manufacturers to ask what the companies are doing to combat the thefts of their devices, reports Bloomberg.

San Francisco district attorney Georce Gascón has previously pressed Apple about the possibility of a 'kill switch' in iOS devices to disable them if stolen, but said he was 'underwhelmed' by Apple's response.

A national stolen phone database that was rolled out recently has reportedly had little effect on smartphone thefts.
While Apple and other smartphone makers would receive some minor monetary benefit from victims purchasing replacement phones, the revenue would be a drop in the bucket compared to the overall smartphone market.

Additionally, the goodwill generated by disabling stolen phones would more than outweigh any fiscal impact. Apple does offer a free service called 'Find My iPhone' that can erase or lock stolen phones, but erasing a phone does not render the phone unusable.

Article Link: New York Attorney General Presses Apple and Google on Smartphone Thefts

Killswitch will be great.

But, what if someone hacked your Apple/Google account? They can then kill your phone / erase any data stored on the cloud.

mariusaz · May 13, 2013

It's not the manufacturer's job to combat theft of their devices.

DTphonehome · May 13, 2013

Good. Apple certainly has the ability to do this. It wouldn't be hard at all. To keep the kill switch process secure, they could simply require that the owner submit a police report before they disable the phone.

Imagine what a great selling point that would be: a virtually unstealable phone!

GoCubsGo · May 13, 2013

While smartphone thefts need attention, the NY AG sure seems to be interested in projects that seem rather silly. A smartphone is a fairly big deal considering the price (off contract), but does the NY AG really need to be involved?

afawcett · May 13, 2013

I thought it was strange to see so many public officials placing so much pressure on Apple and Google to place antitheft protection on their smart phones. However, other companies have been doing this for years. For example, car companies used keys as an antitheft deterrent. Later on they introduced transponders. Find My iPhone does nothing to stop a thief from making an easy $400.

John.B · May 13, 2013

Yeah, I can't wait 'til the lowlifes of the world figure out how to throw the killswitch on other people's cell phones.

Great idea. Mr. Schneiderman. /sarcasm

AppleMark · May 13, 2013

Sadly, a database is not going to stop a person being killed for their iPhone. I see the merit in the idea, but the implementation of it will need to be given further consideration.

madmin · May 13, 2013

It's about time something was done here (and many other areas), I welcome this as a helpful nudge to encourage Apple to speed things up.

ThisIsNotMe · May 13, 2013

mariusaz said:
It's not the manufacturer's job to combat theft of their devices.

You obviously don't view the world through the eyes of a liberal.
Its ALWAYS someone elses fault.

Chip NoVaMac · May 13, 2013

mariusaz said:
It's not the manufacturer's job to combat theft of their devices.

May not be a responsibility; but as a good citizen they can do more to stop thefts and beatings that some thefts lead to.

johnparjr · May 13, 2013

if my truck is stolen is Toyota responsible?

brand · May 13, 2013

johnparjr said:
if my truck is stolen is Toyota responsible?

That depends, is your truck a Toyota? I kid, I kid.

genovelle · May 13, 2013

ThisIsNotMe said:
You obviously don't view the world through the eyes of a liberal.
Its ALWAYS someone elses fault.

According to the conservatives it's always the liberal's fault. How is that for logic.

Yvan256 · May 13, 2013

Didn't I read that most stolen phones just get exported overseas?

Unless the manufacturers implement a kill switch to completely disable the phones, this is pointless.

Rocko1 · May 13, 2013

mariusaz said:
It's not the manufacturer's job to combat theft of their devices.

No, but it's the carriers responsibility to make stolen devices worthless. Hard to register a stolen car, make it hard/impossible to activate a stolen phone.

iHEARTcartoons · May 13, 2013

"New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has written to a number of smartphone manufacturers to ask what the companies are doing to combat the thefts of their devices"

Flooding the market with as many as possible.

spacepower7 · May 13, 2013

Stolen phones have been a problem for more than a decade.

Blame the carriers for allowing stolen phones back on their networks.

The carriers are the ones who allowed this problem to exist, and grow.

If the carriers would have started blocking stolen phones a decade ago this would be a minor problem now.

Many stolen smartphones are crimes of opportunity. They aren't all done by underground groups that export them, as the media likes speculate.

musicianm · May 13, 2013

Should be able to

Only because each phone has it's own identification number and can be electronically monitored. Should be easy for them to do this.

If you have a cell phone service, AT&T or whomever, should be able to identify that your account is tied to that number, and should be able to lock the device until it's recovered.

Millah · May 13, 2013

Maybe Apple IS working on an antitheft solution.....and just doesn't want anybody to know about it yet until they announce the new phone. Sounds exactly like what the fingerprint sensor could help with

nsfw · May 13, 2013

AppleMark said:
Sadly, a database is not going to stop a person being killed for their iPhone. I see the merit in the idea, but the implementation of it will need to be given further consideration.

Sure it is. If the resale value is $0 instead of $20, then no ones phone is going to get stolen.
We don't user operated kill switches. Apple+the carriers know your unique device identifiers. They could blacklist the device so it would never work on a network again. Sure, I supposed the device would still have some value as an ipod touch type device but I think the thieves would move on to stealing something else.

surma884 · May 13, 2013

mariusaz said:
It's not the manufacturer's job to combat theft of their devices.

This is the dumbest statement ever. It's not their job but it is their responsibility to prevent people from using stolen merchandise. Look at the car industry. They have anti-theft systems where you can't hot wire the cars anymore because of a computer chip in the key. Wireless carriers and phone manufacturers need to work together to black list stolen phones so that they can never be used unless they goto the carrier to get it unlocked by providing proof of purchase and ID. Satellite providers have the capability to blacklist receivers, so if your receiver is stolen you can tell DirecTV or Dish and they will deactivate the receiver.

nizzard · May 13, 2013

My Maxima was stolen a few years ago. What is Nissan doing about this so they don't benefit from me having to repurchase a car?

surma884 · May 13, 2013

nsfw said:
Sure it is. If the resale value is $0 instead of $20, then no ones phone is going to get stolen.
We don't user operated kill switches. Apple+the carriers know your unique device identifiers. They could blacklist the device so it would never work on a network again. Sure, I supposed the device would still have some value as an ipod touch type device but I think the thieves would move on to stealing something else.

They can make it so if the device is blacklisted it cannot be used at all. For example, as soon as the device is turned on it shows an error message saying "the device has been marked as stolen". This way it can't be used for anything.

New York Attorney General Presses Apple and Google on Smartphone Thefts

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