Senate proposes federal smartphone "kill switch" legislation

[Jos]

Following a similar proposal in the state of California, four Democratic senators have begun pushing the Smartphone Theft Protection Act, which would require cellular devices makers to equip them with a kill switch of sorts to be permanently deactivated if stolen, and allow owners to remotely wipe all personal data.

The bill represents the latest attempt to crack down on theft. It’s likely to encounter some resistance from certain players in the industry, however. In particular, the CTIA has argued that such a system could be abused by hackers to disable entire groups of customers. Presumably, deactivation would be irreversible (otherwise it wouldn’t have the same effect deterring theft), thus making unintended consequences that more complex.

While CTIA agrees work needs to be done to prevent the theft of wireless devices, Jot Carpenter, the group’s vice president of government affairs, says they “clearly disagree on how to accomplish that goal.”

The cellular industry trade group, along with the FCC and four of the largest US carriers are pushing a national lost-and-stolen phone registry instead, which would be used as a blacklist to deny activation of stolen smartphones. That database went live late last year and the group believes legislation should build upon this initiative by criminalizing tampering with mobile device identifiers as a workaround to the blacklist.

Mobile phone thefts account for 30% to 40% of all robberies in major cities across the US, according to the FCC, and that figure is said to be as high as 50% in markets like San Francisco.

Manufacturers and software developers are doing their part independently. Aside from phone tracking services like Android Device Manager and Find My iPhone, Apple implemented an Activation Lock feature in iOS 7 that will make it impossible to reactivate a lost or stolen device without its associated Apple ID and password.

Image via iMore

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https://www.techspot.com/news/55701-senate-proposes-federal-smartphone-kill-switch-legislation.html

 

[Guest]

Who and why would anyone be against this?

 

[Guest]

I am against it for the reasons listed in the article and for other reasons. Technically, unless the "kill-switch" triggers a self-destruct mechanism, hackers will be able to get around it, effectively rendering this legislation useless. But do you want to know the real reason behind the legislation? Think about how they are going to fund this blacklist registry. They are going to end up putting yet another tax on your cell phone bill. This is how politicians work. They don't give a crap about the amount of phones being stolen. They are using the theft statistics as a "reason" to increase your taxes.

 

[davislane1]

Who and why would anyone be against this?

Because they recognize when a pawn is being positioned to setup a bigger move.

I am against it for the reasons listed in the article and for other reasons. Technically, unless the "kill-switch" triggers a self-destruct mechanism, hackers will be able to get around it, effectively rendering this legislation useless. But do you want to know the real reason behind the legislation? Think about how they are going to fund this blacklist registry. They are going to end up putting yet another tax on your cell phone bill. This is how politicians work. They don't give a crap about the amount of phones being stolen. They are using the theft statistics as a "reason" to increase your taxes.

^^ The bigger move.

 

[Guest]

Maybe put a C4 backplate, then we talk business )

 

[Guest]

Because the simple fact that big government has the time to create new regulations on something as stupid as this rather than work on bigger problems that face this country is just acknowledging that they are completely inept when it comes to solving REAL problems

 

[spencer]

Don't worry the Government wants this because it loves you.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Because the simple fact that big government has the time to create new regulations on something as stupid as this rather than work on bigger problems that face this country is just acknowledging that they are completely inept when it comes to solving REAL problems

True, but politicians love the little victories. Note, the politicians in this case are democrats, and a democrat's main job is to protect and do good. The important part here to remember is that actually accomplishing something isn't what's really important, what's important is to LOOK like you're accomplishing something. That means most of their work involves passing a bunch of laws that don't have any real effect on anything, but make it appear like they care about us. Take note this summer when you see political commercials they will talk about the laws they voted for and passed, not how the laws actually helped (or didn't). (For examples of laws that sound great but don't help, see Illinois' pile of gun control laws and their sky-high murder rate... and like just about every green energy govt subsidy ever.)

Considering how easily software is pirated, iPhones are 'jail-broken', and android phones are rooted, I don't believe hackers won't be able to pull a fix in a short period of time. Especially if you can unlock it with your own password, a hacker doesn't even need to risk bricking their own phone to work on it.

 

[Guest]

It is not the job of any politician to "protect and do good". It is the job of every politician, Republican, Democrat, class President, to represent the will of the People. The People tell the politicians what to do, not the other way around. Well, that's the way it's supposed to be.

 

[tonylukac]

Seems dumb. Why wipe all the data if it goes of accidentally? Just don't keep sensitive data an a portable device. I don't. What I would liike is to get at that law enforcement gps/triangulation data to see where your phone is.

 

[captaincranky]

It is not the job of any politician to "protect and do good". It is the job of every politician, Republican, Democrat, class President, to represent the will of the People. The People tell the politicians what to do, not the other way around. Well, that's the way it's supposed to be.

Right, and good luck with that.

Unless of course, by "people", you mean the Washington lobbyists who have financed their political campaigns, they can have whatever they want.

Expensive smart phones bring forth a parallel defense argument often used in rape cases, "she was asking for it, the way she was dressed, where she was and at that ungodly hour of the morning".

And just for the sake of argument, aren't people really "asking for it", parading around with the latest piece of hardware". People get sold this crap, by allowing vendors to pander to their egos. "Oh Siri, call me 'rock god' from now on. They want the shiniest, most feature laden toy they can find. Then, when somebody beats them up and takes it off them, they're seemingly mystified. "How could this happen to "ME" ???? Well, because stupid, you should have bought a crap flip phone, stayed out of the ghetto, and programmed 911 on speed dial.

Rich people like to go to the opera blatantly showing off their wealth by way of fur coats and jewelry.

It's really the same thing, but even more dangerous, calling ahead to your ghetto crack dealer on your $600.00 smart phone, and then stopping by his house.

Where I live, you can't even set a snow shovel down, so I'm not really stupid enough to walk out front with a pricey phone.

If the good senators really want to do something for me, they'll jail some of the phone thieves..And make a more concerted effort to get rid of street dealers. Dealing is NOT a "victimless crime". It's their junkie customer, who's going to beat the crap out of you and steal your precious phone Remember, you can write all the laws you want, modern police forces don't have the will, inclination, nor manpower to enforce them. They're generally more concerned with red light cameras, and parking tickets.

Besides, catching thieves is hard work. Plus, if the muggers don't quite understand the whole concept of, "bricking", you're likely still going to get beat up, and have a useless phone to boot, adding insult and injury, to insult and injury.

Oh yeah, before I forget, the police do also take great pleasure in drawing yellow chalk lines around dead bodies and bullet casings. When that becomes necessary in my neighborhood, the whole precinct is out, cavorting and having themselves a good old time.

Seems dumb. Why wipe all the data if it goes of accidentally? Just don't keep sensitive data an a portable device. I don't. What I would liike is to get at that law enforcement gps/triangulation data to see where your phone is.

Well Tony, because then 90% of this forum would be whining their brains out about the government either tracking them, or being able to track them. They're invading my privacy, boo, hoo, hoo...

 

[Emexrulsier]

I think it a stupid idea and could potentially result in a large portion of phones ending up bricked in a landfill. Also how does this work with the second hand market is some company going to be set up to manage owner ship and you can gaurantee they will charge people to update owner ship records of handsets

 

[Holotus]

By "hackers" do you mean governments? The absolute worst criminals in history have been governments.

 

[richalone442]

It is not the job of any politician to "protect and do good". It is the job of every politician, Republican, Democrat, class President, to represent the will of the People. The People tell the politicians what to do, not the other way around. Well, that's the way it's supposed to be.

Right, and good luck with that.

Unless of course, by "people", you mean the Washington lobbyists who have financed their political campaigns, they can have whatever they want.

Expensive smart phones bring forth a parallel defense argument often used in rape cases, "she was asking for it, the way she was dressed, where she was and at that ungodly hour of the morning".

And just for the sake of argument, aren't people really "asking for it", parading around with the latest piece of hardware". People get sold this crap, by allowing vendors to pander to their egos. "Oh Siri, call me 'rock god' from now on. They want the shiniest, most feature laden toy they can find. Then, when somebody beats them up and takes it off them, they're seemingly mystified. "How could this happen to "ME" ???? Well, because stupid, you should have bought a crap flip phone, stayed out of the ghetto, and programmed 911 on speed dial.

Rich people like to go to the opera blatantly showing off their wealth by way of fur coats and jewelry.

It's really the same thing, but even more dangerous, calling ahead to your ghetto crack dealer on your $600.00 smart phone, and then stopping by his house.

Where I live, you can't even set a snow shovel down, so I'm not really stupid enough to walk out front with a pricey phone.

If the good senators really want to do something for me, they'll jail some of the phone thieves..And make a more concerted effort to get rid of street dealers. Dealing is NOT a "victimless crime". It's their junkie customer, who's going to beat the crap out of you and steal your precious phone Remember, you can write all the laws you want, modern police forces don't have the will, inclination, nor manpower to enforce them. They're generally more concerned with red light cameras, and parking tickets.

Besides, catching thieves is hard work. Plus, if the muggers don't quite understand the whole concept of, "bricking", you're likely still going to get beat up, and have a useless phone to boot, adding insult and injury, to insult and injury.

Oh yeah, before I forget, the police do also take great pleasure in drawing yellow chalk lines around dead bodies and bullet casings. When that becomes necessary in my neighborhood, the whole precinct is out, cavorting and having themselves a good old time.

Seems dumb. Why wipe all the data if it goes of accidentally? Just don't keep sensitive data an a portable device. I don't. What I would liike is to get at that law enforcement gps/triangulation data to see where your phone is.

Well Tony, because then 90% of this forum would be whining their brains out about the government either tracking them, or being able to track them. They're invading my privacy, boo, hoo, hoo...

Sometimes I love ya, sometimes I hate ya, but you always leave interesting comments, I just fear the government being able to turn off all phones if it wanted to.. Let's let the manufactures figure out how to stop the phone thieves on there own.