California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law that from July 1, 2015 in this state are prohibited to sell smart phones and phones without a "kill switch". This function should lead to a reduction in the number of thefts. But remote shutdown smartphones will abuse power and hackers, human rights activists warn.
"California drew attention to thieves smartphones," - said one of the sponsors, State Senator Mark Leno. He believes that the function of remote shutdown deprives thieves steal stimulus communicators, and the bill will reduce street crime.
"The switch of death" can be implemented in hardware or software. When this function should not be turned off when you reset the device to factory settings, upgrade or downgrade the operating system. The law requires manufacturers to make sure that she is forced to work on all smartphones and record buyers in the sale, and additional efforts will now have to make to anyone who wants to disconnect your phone from a remote system shutdown.
Apparently, Apple mobile devices will not affect the law. Activation Lock in the iOS operating system allows you to completely block the stolen iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad. This feature drastically reduced the number of thefts of "apple" devices. In London, during the first five months of 2014, it fell by 24% compared to the same period last year, in San Francisco - 38%, in New York - 19%, according to the office of Attorney General of New York State.
Other manufacturers have services similar to Find My iPhone, with which you can remotely restrict access to your phone. However, they have certain limitations, besides, such a lock is not too difficult to circumvent, for example, simple flashing device.
According to the organization Consumer Reports, in the United States in 2013 was 3.1 million theft of smartphones, down from 1.6 million the year before. According to the mayor of Oakland Jean Quan, smart phones are the target in 75% of all armed robberies and burglaries in the city.
Meanwhile, human rights activists oppose the "kill switch" Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in an open letter criticized the California law: according to the lawyers of the organization, it is not expressly stated, is exactly who has the right to activate the remote access feature. It can take advantage of and criminals and law enforcement agencies, warned EFF.