Are Kill Switches Really Enough to Deter Smartphone Thieves?

When California became the first state to postulate fresh smartphones to have a built - in kill switch — a way to disenable and brick a gadget when it goes absent — it seemed like the days of rearing smartphone theft were finally over . After all , who would sell a all bricked iPhone to some fall guy person , amirite ?

Turns out — a lot of people .

For representative , listen to the harebrained story of Rusty Redenbacher , a keg speech hombre who spoke to theWall Street Journalabout his bizarre smartphone kill switching experience :

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Rusty Redenbacher was fork out keg of beer in Indianapolis last month when his new iPhone 6 was swiped from his van .

Mr. Redenbacher went to his iCloud account and activated “ lose mood ” to exhibit a message on the earpiece sound out it was lost or slip , with a identification number to call . When no one cry , Mr. Redenbacher remotely rub out the speech sound the next day . These feature of speech , often call the killing switch , transform his phone into what he termed a “ paperweight . ”

Days subsequently , though , someone did call . The person said he had bought the phone for $ 150 and asked Mr. Redenbacher for his Apple ID and countersign so he could reactivate the machine .

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“ Are you unbalanced ? ! ” 44 - class - old Mr. Redenbacher , who is also a longtime fixture in the urban center ’s music setting , remembers replying .

You almost have to look up to the everlasting lack of social awareness that could force someone to buy a bricked phone and then call the guy whose phone you buy .

But this is n’t really about weird citizenry buying bricked phones — weird hoi polloi are a universal constant — it ’s that kill switch are n’t exactlythe anti - theft saviorthey’ve been made out to be .

Photo: Jae C. Hong

The Wall Street Journal report that while certain urban center like San Francisco and New York have been card cities for how kill switch can discourage would - be viscous fingers , other cities have n’t had virtually the explosive drop in larceny — with some cities like Seattle actually seeing an increase .

So what ’s going on here ? A mates things actually . People are getting put one across into buy bricked phones , some are being sold for part , and some online services claim they can restore a bricked iPhone after remotely ego - destructing .

So no , kill switches are n’t going to completely make smartphone theft a affair of the yesteryear . They ’re just another helpful impediment that also does an equally dandy thing of protect your data by destroying it . But as long as mass want smartphones , there will be the great unwashed uncoerced to slip them — bricked or not .

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