Top US Prosecutor Calls for iPhone “Kill Switch”

[Maura]

[FONT=&amp]

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon has been talking about his recent meeting with an Apple representative, during which he talked about the possibility of building some sort of “kill switch” into future iPhones that would disable the phone at a flick of a switch, or remote trigger, as a deterrent to thieves. According to a report in The Huffington Post, Gascon says that he asked the Apple representative to think about using such technology in future iPhones in a bid to crack down on the black market trade in stolen phones. However, Gascon adds that the meeting turned out to be “very underwhelming,” and he now wants to take his campaign right to the top at Apple, and is, to that end, seeking a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook. [/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]“Given how nimble our technology companies are and how they can develop so many new features, I strongly believe that [an iPhone kill switch] is a very doable thing,” Gascon told The Huffington Post. [/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]Source:[/FONT] Apple Should Create Stolen iPhone 'Kill Switch,' Says Top City Prosecutor

 

[willerz2]

If that were to happen, they'll have to implement something that blocks the device from being restored as well, otherwise, it'll end up being restored and sold online to con buyers into believing it's sold by owner.

 

[Col.bris]

Where is Samsung and other companies in this request seems one sided

 

[Darkstar2007]

Where is Samsung and other companies in this request seems one sided

Maybe somebody forgot to tell him there's other smartphone companies out there. lol!

 

[blantz]

Maybe somebody forgot to tell him there's other smartphone companies out there. lol!

Say whaaaat?!?

Sent from my iPhone using iPF.net

 

[KevinJS]

If Apple have any sense, they'll get right on with it and patent it.

There would, I'm sure, be considerable interest in a thief proof phone. Restoring wouldn't be a problem because it could be done at the hardware level using the MAC address, perhaps.

 

[Skull One]

Where is Samsung and other companies in this request seems one sided

If you dig into the theft statistics, you will find that the iPhone outpaces all other phones by at least a 3 to 1 margin. So by going after the #1 stolen device, they expect the other makers will have to follow suit. I.E. Apple can state in advertisement "We work with law enforcement to protect you". Samsung would follow that lead in less than a day internally and would have something on the street in a week.

The DA is being very smart about this in my opinion.