US Federal law proposes 'kill switches' for smartphones
- M
- MisterCats
- RHT
- 16 Feb 2014
AnonD-233895, 16 Feb 2014Yes please do. A lot of pawn shops will have their biz cut ... moreDon't be dumb. Pawn shop operators have no authority to check for IMEI blocklist status; an active AT&T account is required to even check for this (I'm an AT&T call center rep for several different divisions). Most times, the original owner of said phone won't call in to report the IMEI stolen until after it has already been sold, so the workers at the shop will have been able to successfully make/recieve calls, completely unaware that the seller is untruthful. They aren't contacted/notified by AT&T in any way that the device in their possession is stolen because AT&T has no way of identifying the current holder of the device.
- B
- Bernie
- K7f
- 16 Feb 2014
AnonD-8044, 16 Feb 2014no because if you sell a lot of phones like i do the last o... moreSo it's OK with you to sell stolen phones? Selling stolen phones is like selling carnapped vehicles.
- L
- Lucent
- 0Ws
- 16 Feb 2014
If kill switch gets done, hackers will abuse of it and kill everybodies phone.
- L
- Liu K
- UDM
- 16 Feb 2014
Oh, how about kill switches for patent troll ?
That would be more useful
- D
- AnonD-213683
- Lax
- 16 Feb 2014
MdN8, 16 Feb 2014Yeah, the next thing you know you won't be able to turn you... moreThis is called LTE. And it's coming everywhere! It's doing exactly this! :)
- M
- MdN8
- mcH
- 16 Feb 2014
AnonD-213683, 16 Feb 2014This is of course the latest NSA request. This kind of fea... moreYeah, the next thing you know you won't be able to turn your phone and mobile data off. There will be a perfectly "good" reason for that, too.
- D
- AnonD-213683
- Lax
- 16 Feb 2014
This is of course the latest NSA request. This kind of feature is something that only the user should ask for (not the state), and anyway the user should be able to disable it. Otherwise the efin agencies could disable your smartphone whenever they want.
And of course we already cannot completely switch off our mobiles because the battery is embedded and (of course) the bad guys can at any time remotely wipe the important evidences we got on our phone. It's getting worse, guys...
- D
- AnonD-233895
- 7C4
- 16 Feb 2014
Yes please do. A lot of pawn shops will have their biz cut down for sure because they buy stolen phones and sell them and convince you that it was not stolen .they are so confident that they don't even wipe the phone before selling
- d
- dlads
- 3GZ
- 16 Feb 2014
Problem with this is, a virus could cause the unlucky recipient to wipe their whole device and break it in the process.
- M
- MdN8
- mcH
- 16 Feb 2014
I already have a "kill switch" in my head, it gets activated every time someone touches my N8. :-)
- D
- AnonD-35318
- KA5
- 16 Feb 2014
Well it should implement on future devices specially on high end phones and what I believe in the coming years cellphones will be more affordable so that people could their favourite device so the theft rate will go down.
- ?
- Anonymous
- Ibx
- 16 Feb 2014
AnonD-8044, 16 Feb 2014no because if you sell a lot of phones like i do the last o... moreIf this works like remote wipe then what is stopping the previous owner from wiping your phone now?
- D
- AnonD-198581
- PAV
- 16 Feb 2014
In developing world, parts will be disassembled and sold separately. Killing the mainboard is not enough.
- J
- JCK
- A2r
- 16 Feb 2014
A kill switches, nice one so when ever I feel like making a really bad joke I will go true my old devices and make the kill switch, or the person I got the phone from will Kill Switch my phone and im F***.
- g
- ghj
- 0U0
- 16 Feb 2014
AnonD-8044, 16 Feb 2014no because if you sell a lot of phones like i do the last o... moreIf they sold the phone to you.....then why would they remote kill it? Plus I'm sure that when you sell the phone you also pass the ability to use this feature. So you have no reason to worry about
- D
- AnonD-8044
- dQe
- 16 Feb 2014
no because if you sell a lot of phones like i do the last owner has the ability to kill the phone...it could render second hand phones useless.i mainly buy my phones second hand so i could end up with lots of dud phones or the person i sell one to wanting their money back.
- ?
- Anonymous
- JbS
- 16 Feb 2014
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo
- k
- khayaal
- xmq
- 16 Feb 2014
definitely, a great step for anti-theft problem. this will decrease the theft of mobiles considerably