The advent of smartphones, those pocket-sized computers that we take with us everywhere we go, has seen cell phone theft become a very lucrative business. A significant portion of people walking down the street are carrying several hundred dollars worth of tech on their person and all a thief has to do is wait until one person puts his or her phone down on a table in a coffee shop. The most effective way of reducing smartphone theft is obviously to be more careful. However, something else has had a massive impact on smartphone theft. Something the average user may not even know about.
Reuters reports that the introduction of smartphone kill switches has resulted in a sharp drop in cell phone theft in New York, San Francisco and London, England. In the 12 months since Apple introduced its “kill switch” in the form of Find My iPhone’s Activation Lock, iPhone theft has fallen by as much as 50%. In London, iPhone theft fell by half, while thefts in San Francisco and New York fell by 40% and 25% respectively.
Other manufacturers also have their own versions of the kill switch, which allows users to remotely wipe or lock their phone when it gets lost or stolen. What’s interesting is that aside from acting as a form of damage control for protecting the user’s data after the fact, these features have become sort of a preventative measure. That’s particularly great news for those that don’t have a software or hardware kill switch on their phone.
[source]Reuters[/source]
