Posted on 04/16/2014 4:01:05 PM PDT by kingattax
(CNN) -- The "kill switch," a system for remotely disabling smartphones and wiping their data, will become standard in 2015, according to a pledge backed by most of the mobile world's major players.
Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft, along with the five biggest cellular carriers in the United States, are among those that have signed on to a voluntary program announced Tuesday by the industry's largest trade group.
All smartphones manufactured for sale in the United States after July 2015 must have the technology, according to the program from CTIA-The Wireless Association.
Advocates say the feature would deter thieves from taking mobile devices by rendering phones useless while allowing people to protect personal information if their phone is lost or stolen. Its proponents include law enforcement officials concerned about the rising problem of smartphone theft.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Gee, I wonder what will be happening in 2015...
No modern smartphone has an actual off switch.
They just go into a sleep mode and wake up constantly looking for a button press or whatever.
Lots of electronic items nowadays don’t really turn off.
Sorta like how your TV remotes never turn off..they just sleep like the smartphones do.
There were car phones in the fifties and maybe before. See them in old movies sometimes.
I would guess the service was very localised though.
LMAO!
“Expect that law enforcement will issue a blanket “wipe” order for all phones used by patriots and bystanders in areas like the Bundy Ranch so all communications, pictures, videos and voice records will be gone. At a bare minimum, store everything to removable media and swap those out regularly. “
The first thought of many including me.
They can’t wipe it if they can’t find it.
Sorry, but the tracking part of your phone is always on. Cannot be turned off by you. Your phone is constantly reporting your position.
Only way I know to defeat this is to block the phone's transmissions by putting the phone in a Faraday cage. A shiny mylar package used for potato chips will work. Test this: put you phone in a bag like that and call it. It won't answer because the cell network can't find it.
This is reason #16 why I do not have and prolly never will have a cell phone.
I have a very old non-smart phone.
It does have a camera but no GPS and can be turned off. It can also have the battery removed
I hate to be a Luddite but I refuse to be a slave to my technology
Once the government put a kill switch on us with Obamacare, why not go after our phones too. Next, kill switch on cars, computers, thermostat, radio, TV, internet.
bfl
I’ve seen pictures of them from the mid 1940’s on. The first phones, you had to call the radio operator first and give your callsign and IIRC, you had to say “over” to hear the other side talk. Later on, you had direct dialing. I used to pick them up in the 35/43 Mc, 152 Mc and 454 Mc bands on my police scanner. A lot of pagers were there too, especially 35 Mc, I used to hear the “bleep bleeps” and then the voice message. There is an amateur radio operator that even has recordings of pagers and mobile phone from the late 1960’s and 1970’s.
Hammer? Magnet? likely won’t do much. Makes it harder to access the data, but your data is stored on tiny robust components. Transplant the “flash memory” chips to another device (not easy, but doable) and we’ll be reviewing your texts, emails, and browser history soon enough to use against you.
Didn’t the father of a young woman who was killed for her cell phone begin the push for this?
“Do not keep your phone turned on. ... Or do the latest versions not have an on/off switch?”
Aye, there’s the rub. Modern computers (smartphones included) are rather hard to “turn off”. There’s an assortment of power-saving states that look like it’s off, but never actually be off. The iMac instruction manual actually says that if you truly need to “turn it off” you _must_ unplug it; anything with a non-removable battery may very well running to some degree so long as the battery is not flat dead. As time goes on, these things stay on ever more persistently.
And, considering the post you’re replying to, it’s not gonna do you much good as a communications or recording device if it’s off. When it’s on, it’s subject to the “kill” signal.
There should be (and I’m tempted to make one if there isn’t) apps for robustly transmitting audio/video to secured (encrypted, protected, and legally-bound) remote data storage. Given the scenario, methinks that should include short-range (direct-wifi or bluetooth) transmission to wireless storage devices. All smashing or “kill-switching” one should do is record the act thereof as evidence.
Many of us have video cameras independent of cell phones. No “kill switch” effect there. If you’re deliberately joining such an incident, you’ll likely have time to grab it (or even buy one quick from darn near any electronics store, Walmart included) - if only for the much better optical zoom, as anything interesting may easily be too far for a cell phone camera to record well.
Or to shut down video by the ubiquitous smart phone at locations like a cattle operation in Nevada?
Need private network and secure link out of controlled area to document the play-by-play.
35 to 43 Mhz? Hmm, then the military FM radios would have been able to pick up the transmissions. We could get channels 2 thru 6 TV audio bands but there was never anything on worth listening to ;)
It would be a violation of a person's first amendment right to peaceably assemble, if the police can instantly isolate you from everyone else by disabling your phone because they fear that you will expose what they're doing.
A police force that has secrets becomes a secret police.
-PJ
Surely the government would never abuse this.
Why? Is this a big problem? Are the street rampant with phone thieves??
My goodness.
One of the great things about modern communications technology is that it is cheap and easily replaceable.
Why do we need MANDATORY features on a phone? If the people want it, they’ll buy it. If you don’t want that kind of feature on a phone, do NOT buy it.
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