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Posted on 05/15/2014 3:53:54 AM PDT by markomalley
Minnesota on Wednesday passed the nation’s first law requiring smartphones to have the ability to be remotely disabled.
The law requires smartphone manufacturers to introduce so-called “kill switches” in devices to allow users to make lost or stolen phones unusable. In so doing, the state hopes to remove the incentive for such robberies, which are on the rise. A Consumer Reports survey released last month found that 3.1 million Americans had cellphones stolen in 2013, nearly double the 1.6 million thefts reported the previous year. Some of those robberies can become violent, as was the case for a Minneapolis mayoral candidate who received nine stitches after being assaulted by teenage thieves in December.
“This law will help combat the growing number of violent cellphone thefts in Minnesota,” Gov. Mark Dayton said in a statement to announce the bill’s signing. Minnesota is the first state to pass such a law. A similar measure is working its way through the California legislature.
Between 30 percent and 40 percent of robberies in cities involve cellphones, according to Federal Communications Commission statistics from 2012. The number of cellphone thefts last year rose in San Francisco, New York, Washington and Philadelphia, the Huffington Post reported.
Businesses and industry groups have argued against imposing kill switch mandates because they could pose risks, such as mistaken or malicious disabling of devices.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If my cell phone turned violent, I would crush it and throw it away. I would NOT wait for it to be stolen.
GREAT!
And obviously there is not danger of an oppressive government mis-using this feature, so it’s ALL good!
/s
If some one steals my cell now do I not call the provider and they shut it down.
May be the do gooders will try to push a braclet that talks to the device as they are trying to push for guns.
Then they perp can cut you hand off and take the bracket too.
same thing LEO=Gmnt
Cell service providers can already effectively “kill” a stolen device, if they wanted to. Each phone associates a unique ESN with an account. If they would disallow authentication of a device with a stolen ESN, the market for stolen phones would evaporate.
Its much better when states try stuff like this than the Federal government, lets see how it goes.
My Sprint phone can be located, to within 50 feet, locked and I can turn on a very annoying alarm, all from any PC.
And on of the the “unintended consequences” of this technology will be that the government can turn off the portable camera of those capturing images of government abuse.
We have a winner here folks. No more entries please.
They are doing this to increase their power, not yours.
And he probably had some *cough* inappropriate selfies on his phone.
LOL!!! Yep
The 2nd ammendment provides the real solution, a kill switch for thieves!
...or just cause the robbers to kill you so you can't turn it off. That's about how it usually works when the government decides they're going to "help" you.
Never forget the nine most frightening words in the English language:"I'm from the government and I'm here to help! "
Ah! The weiner- phone!
I bet your guns and SUV don’t get out of line!
Violation of the first amendment.
Yes, but the phones end up going overseas where they get defaulted back to new and resold. They have a barcode so why don’t they just make the phone companies check that to see if it was stolen?
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California will be right behind
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