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California Law Now Requires All Smartphones to Have Built-In Kill Switches By July 2015

imaketouchtheme said:
I'm amazed that there are already so many sarcastic responses to this news article less than two minutes after it was posted. There is absolutely no way on Earth that this was properly read in time to make those types of reactions.

Why, oh why, must everyone complain and whine about everything, especially without even fully understanding what he/she is complaining about? :rolleyes:
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It's further proof as to why the world will never be satisfied, as well as a small glimpse into why this society as a whole will never ever be unified. As example, If you go to any and every online news media outlet both great and small and read the comments section of any given article you will see for yourself.
 
roland.g said:
I actually did live in California for 3+ years. However we are talking about how California is a liberal state gone socialist. Not to mention it is part of the Reconquista.

But if you want to talk about weather, then again you are wrong, our weather > your weather. I live in Colorado. We have more sunshine than any other state, 300+ days per year. We have the Rocky Mountains with the best skiing, mountain biking, and people move here from all over for all that Colorado has to offer, including many that move here from California. So sad that we don't have mudslides, earthquakes, and smog, or that we have beautiful rivers instead of the empty concrete rivers that only get used to film movie chases.
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California isn't the only state with nice weather obviously. I was referring to those people who have to put up with scorching humid summers and freezing cold winters which we don't have here.
 
"to include software or hardware..."

I want to see the 'hardware' version of this.

I'm envisioning a phone that pops open and a big mallet comes out and smashes the phone!

Or... maybe a 'mission impossible' or 'get smart' version that just smokes and then blows up!
 
Not much point making it law in my eyes, but whatever. How are they going to counter the fact that most theives are demanding the iCloud password off their victims?
 
As someone said here earlier, after NSA's free reign to pretty much read or hear anything you say, there is no law that can top that.

So why are we even talking about this?
 
krravi said:
As someone said here earlier, after NSA's free reign to pretty much read or hear anything you say, there is no law that can top that.

So why are we even talking about this?
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This^^
This conversation is actually redundant at this point.

More on topic, the brick phone feature has been in place for sometime now for iPhones (since ios7) so it seems that they are trying to push this out across all platforms. (?)
Here in sf iPhone theft was/is very real as it was happening just about every week in the tourist areas for a minute, however since io7 it has slowed, for this reason this news seems somewhat old/after-the-fact now. iPhones were the biggest target due to their resale value, And some hi end samsungs. (Not sure what google has in place for anti theft).
 
All new phones..

If you just lost your older phone, sorry, we can't do anything...

"It may effect smart-phone manufactures"

This is putting it lightly.


Unfortunately, its only in California, but i guess you gotta start somewhere


I would have preferred it happen all at the same time "global", but i could only wish that to happen.

In the mean time, while we'll all twiddling our thumbs, the thief has just grabbed my new phone.
 
Rodster said:
Because you are essentially transferring more of your freedoms to the Gubmint. The issue runs deeper than your surface comment. The State can essentially shutdown all phones in a State of Emergency. No communications, no twitter, no facebook, nothing. That's why so many are suspicious of the Gubmint.
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That's right - the comments on this thread are proof of what I suspected: Most of the people posting here have very limited understanding of the greater picture: There is a conspiracy, they do want to control you, you are their cattle, you are sheeple. Why do people think that a kill switch is for anything other than quelling dissent? You think it's for your protection sheep?

The Arab Spring was an experiment in social communication: When you finally wake up and fight back they cut your phone off.
 
Mums said:
That's right - the comments on this thread are proof of what I suspected: Most of the people posting here have very limited understanding of the greater picture: There is a conspiracy, they do want to control you, you are their cattle, you are sheeple. Why do people think that a kill switch is for anything other than quelling dissent? You think it's for your protection sheep?

The Arab Spring was an experiment in social communication: When you finally wake up and fight back they cut your phone off.
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Yes, that's exactly what Apple's Activation Lock has been for the past year that it has already been out for. :rolleyes:
 
The iDevice Pro

This is absolutely ridiculous. Most thieves aren't stupid, just grimy as hell, lazy and prone to making poor decisions. That being said, any thief that is targeting a smartphone more than likely has the sense to either turn off data and/or location services, or even restore the phone to factory settings. iCloud activation lock works great to inhibit factory restores, but not for tracking or remote locking, as turning off data and/or location services nullifies those functions. For CDMA phones, an SMS text code to the phone to disable it would be a perfect solution, but for GSM phones, all you would have to do is remove the SIM. That could be circumvented by SIM locking all GSM phones with ICCID SIMs, and then incorporating an SMS lock. I know of no such application that exists that performs this function, but I can't think of a less invasive and more effective solution.
 
Mums said:
That's right - the comments on this thread are proof of what I suspected: Most of the people posting here have very limited understanding of the greater picture: There is a conspiracy, they do want to control you, you are their cattle, you are sheeple. Why do people think that a kill switch is for anything other than quelling dissent? You think it's for your protection sheep?

The Arab Spring was an experiment in social communication: When you finally wake up and fight back they cut your phone off.
Click to expand...

....seeing that living in a cave off the grid using pigeons for communication is not an option....
 
The iDevice Pro said:
This is absolutely ridiculous. Most thieves aren't stupid, just grimy as hell, lazy and prone to making poor decisions. That being said, any thief that is targeting a smartphone more than likely has the sense to either turn off data and/or location services, or even restore the phone to factory settings. iCloud activation lock works great to inhibit factory restores, but not for tracking or remote locking, as turning off data and/or location services nullifies those functions. For CDMA phones, an SMS text code to the phone to disable it would be a perfect solution, but for GSM phones, all you would have to do is remove the SIM. That could be circumvented by SIM locking all GSM phones with ICCID SIMs, and then incorporating an SMS lock. I know of no such application that exists that performs this function, but I can't think of a less invasive and more effective solution.
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Well, all of this isn't necessarily to recover the phone, just to kill it essentially to make it that much less useful (as in what Activation Lock essentially does).
 
Response!

miamialley said:
How'd it get stolen?
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to be honest I'm not really sure... I'm guessing someone took it out of my apartment without my knowledge, but the address it gave me when it turned up isn't one I'm familiar with. When it was at home it was on the charger, when I left it was always with me. So, kind of confused as to how that took place!
 
AxoNeuron said:
Since activation lock has come out, iphone theft rates have plummeted especially in cities like New York where it used to be common, like "Apple Picking" in New York City.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14...gnificantly-reducing-thefts-of-apple-products

This fear of yours just hasn't materialized, it's made everything a lot safer actually.
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well as a person who has worked in market research and statistical analysis before, I know how easily statistics are made up and really never mean anything.

There really is no way to make a direct correlation to activation lock being released and theft rate reduction. There are too many other factors that could affect this that we may not even know about.

And what about data not collected? thefts not reported? has anyone looked in to if people just stopped reporting iPhoen thefts since there is little the Law enforcement can do, and in fact now the user can do more than law enforcement by remotely wiping the phone? I personally would see no reason in contacting the police if my iPhone was stolen and i remotely wiped it - im not going to get it back, and in fact now that it is a brick the thief probably just smashed it to pieces to get some enjoyment out of it and destroy any evidence.

The best you could say the reduction in reported iPhone thefts is just that - less iPhones are reported stolen - perhaps yes because of activation lock - but that does not mean that people were not targeted for muggings because they have a smart phone - might not be until the thief notices it is a iPhone that he doesnt take the phone - or the Phone is just a sign you may have other valuables.

And even if activation lock has almost eliminated iPhone thefts, it has NOT made everything a lot safer - the criminals are still out there. And its not like when the iPhone was released that things suddenly became less safe than they were before. I certainly didnt feel less safe just because i own an iPhone (and i have always had the top of the line highest capacity iPhone since the 3GS). I think what people are forgetting is criminals are criminals, they arent going to stop being criminals just because one device is no longer worth stealing... while iPhone thefts have reduced, im sure other crimes have increased. I seriously doubt the overall total crime rate has dropped in New York, its probably gone up as it always does.

Really, i think the police have lost a valuable profiling tool in the effort to fight crime - if you know most thefts in an area or of iPhones police could start using this to target criminals or to help identify and protect potential victims. Have undercover cops flashing iPhones to attract criminals and bust them. No instead the police used the iPhone to trick people into getting arrested for buying phones they are told are stolen.... The real problem is that criminals are smarter than the police (or the police just dont care).
 
Swytch said:
well as a person who has worked in market research and statistical analysis before, I know how easily statistics are made up and really never mean anything.

There really is no way to make a direct correlation to activation lock being released and theft rate reduction. There are too many other factors that could affect this that we may not even know about.

And what about data not collected? thefts not reported? has anyone looked in to if people just stopped reporting iPhoen thefts since there is little the Law enforcement can do, and in fact now the user can do more than law enforcement by remotely wiping the phone? I personally would see no reason in contacting the police if my iPhone was stolen and i remotely wiped it - im not going to get it back, and in fact now that it is a brick the thief probably just smashed it to pieces to get some enjoyment out of it and destroy any evidence.

The best you could say the reduction in reported iPhone thefts is just that - less iPhones are reported stolen - perhaps yes because of activation lock - but that does not mean that people were not targeted for muggings because they have a smart phone - might not be until the thief notices it is a iPhone that he doesnt take the phone - or the Phone is just a sign you may have other valuables.

And even if activation lock has almost eliminated iPhone thefts, it has NOT made everything a lot safer - the criminals are still out there. And its not like when the iPhone was released that things suddenly became less safe than they were before. I certainly didnt feel less safe just because i own an iPhone (and i have always had the top of the line highest capacity iPhone since the 3GS). I think what people are forgetting is criminals are criminals, they arent going to stop being criminals just because one device is no longer worth stealing... while iPhone thefts have reduced, im sure other crimes have increased. I seriously doubt the overall total crime rate has dropped in New York, its probably gone up as it always does.

Really, i think the police have lost a valuable profiling tool in the effort to fight crime - if you know most thefts in an area or of iPhones police could start using this to target criminals or to help identify and protect potential victims. Have undercover cops flashing iPhones to attract criminals and bust them. No instead the police used the iPhone to trick people into getting arrested for buying phones they are told are stolen.... The real problem is that criminals are smarter than the police (or the police just dont care).
Click to expand...
Are you really trying to say that activation lock has not had a huge impact on smartphone thefts...?

Just because they are using statistics doesn't automatically mean they are incorrect. There is ZERO reason to believe that somehow people just magically stopped reporting smartphone thefts, so your theory is incredibly unlikely. What's more likely is that a lot of thieves simply realized they couldn't resell an activation locked iphone as easily as they could with a different type of smartphone. And the statistics clearly show this trend.
 
Swytch said:
well as a person who has worked in market research and statistical analysis before, I know how easily statistics are made up and really never mean anything.

There really is no way to make a direct correlation to activation lock being released and theft rate reduction. There are too many other factors that could affect this that we may not even know about.

And what about data not collected? thefts not reported? has anyone looked in to if people just stopped reporting iPhoen thefts since there is little the Law enforcement can do, and in fact now the user can do more than law enforcement by remotely wiping the phone? I personally would see no reason in contacting the police if my iPhone was stolen and i remotely wiped it - im not going to get it back, and in fact now that it is a brick the thief probably just smashed it to pieces to get some enjoyment out of it and destroy any evidence.

The best you could say the reduction in reported iPhone thefts is just that - less iPhones are reported stolen - perhaps yes because of activation lock - but that does not mean that people were not targeted for muggings because they have a smart phone - might not be until the thief notices it is a iPhone that he doesnt take the phone - or the Phone is just a sign you may have other valuables.

And even if activation lock has almost eliminated iPhone thefts, it has NOT made everything a lot safer - the criminals are still out there. And its not like when the iPhone was released that things suddenly became less safe than they were before. I certainly didnt feel less safe just because i own an iPhone (and i have always had the top of the line highest capacity iPhone since the 3GS). I think what people are forgetting is criminals are criminals, they arent going to stop being criminals just because one device is no longer worth stealing... while iPhone thefts have reduced, im sure other crimes have increased. I seriously doubt the overall total crime rate has dropped in New York, its probably gone up as it always does.

Really, i think the police have lost a valuable profiling tool in the effort to fight crime - if you know most thefts in an area or of iPhones police could start using this to target criminals or to help identify and protect potential victims. Have undercover cops flashing iPhones to attract criminals and bust them. No instead the police used the iPhone to trick people into getting arrested for buying phones they are told are stolen.... The real problem is that criminals are smarter than the police (or the police just dont care).
Click to expand...
And that's where it all crumbled down--because something like Activation Lock didn't stop murders it's clearly a failure and a useless feature.
 
tliede20 said:
to be honest I'm not really sure... I'm guessing someone took it out of my apartment without my knowledge, but the address it gave me when it turned up isn't one I'm familiar with. When it was at home it was on the charger, when I left it was always with me. So, kind of confused as to how that took place!
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That's weird. Aren't your worried about how someone got in your place?? You need a dropcam!
 
Oh goody.
Yes this has everything to do with preventing "theft" and nothing whatsoever to do with the ability to have a government back door into shutting down mobile communication whenever they want. Oh no. Nothing like that.
 
lornetc said:
Oh goody.
Yes this has everything to do with preventing "theft" and nothing whatsoever to do with the ability to have a government back door into shutting down mobile communication whenever they want. Oh no. Nothing like that.
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Yup, nothing like that, since you've actually read the thread before posting that, right?
 
probably won't even go a second before some guy fawkes mask wearing shitlord tries to figure out how to junk every single phone in cali
 
scrubmilk said:
probably won't even go a second before some guy fawkes mask wearing shitlord tries to figure out how to junk every single phone in cali
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Because that already happened over a whole year that Apple has had Activation Lock available and working on millions upon millions of iOS devices, rite?
 
AxoNeuron said:
Are you really trying to say that activation lock has not had a huge impact on smartphone thefts...?

Just because they are using statistics doesn't automatically mean they are incorrect. There is ZERO reason to believe that somehow people just magically stopped reporting smartphone thefts, so your theory is incredibly unlikely. What's more likely is that a lot of thieves simply realized they couldn't resell an activation locked iphone as easily as they could with a different type of smartphone. And the statistics clearly show this trend.
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impact maybe, HUGE impact i think not

just because they are using statistics does not automatically mean they are correct either - but statistically most statistics are incorrect - and law enforcement is known to manipulate statistics for their own goals.

there is reason to believe both sides of the argument - the point i am arguing is there is no definitive data. And you are living in some fantasy world outside of reality if you think there is 0 reason to believe anything... anythign is possible, and in fact what i am saying has happened in the past - if people think that reporting a crime puts them in danger or does not help them - they dont report it. In fact most witnesses to crimes never come forward - this is a big reason why so many criminals get off the hook.

----------
C DM said:
And that's where it all crumbled down--because something like Activation Lock didn't stop murders it's clearly a failure and a useless feature.
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never said it was a failure or useless... just not the end all to the crime problem that law enforcement is claiming it is...

----------
lornetc said:
Oh goody.
Yes this has everything to do with preventing "theft" and nothing whatsoever to do with the ability to have a government back door into shutting down mobile communication whenever they want. Oh no. Nothing like that.
Click to expand...

exactly... probably the real reason that law enforcement supports this - it also explains why the statistics are probably fabricated....
 
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