Tiffany Kaiser
February 7, 2014 12:31 PM
A new California bill (click here) could force mobile smartphone and tablet makers to place a "kill switch" on their devices in order to prevent theft.
According to The New York Times, Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) is expected to introduce the bill Friday, which would require all smartphones and tablets sold in California to have a kill switch.
Having a feature like this would make the smartphone or tablet unusable if it were stolen. In turn, Leno hopes that this will curb robberies of mobile devices, since they would be more difficult to sell that way....
Similar devices have worked to end car thefts when they were installed by the manufacturer.
...The best theft prevention device (cilck here) on the market is the passive immobilizer, now standard equipment on 98% of General Motors' light duty vehicles and nearly all of the new Fords. These immobilizers use a key that contains a computer chip which communicates with the car's engine. Without the proper key, the only way to steal the car is to tow it away. "Obviously, an immobilizer is more effective than an alarm," says GM spokesman Andrew Schreck. "An audible system is really just a noisemaker, but we can tie an immobilizer directly to the ignition system, to make sure it really is a deterrent. And it doesn't cost us any more than putting in an alarm."
The insurance statistics speak for themselves. When Ford added an immobilizer system to the Ford Mustang, theft rates dropped 77%....
February 7, 2014 12:31 PM
A new California bill (click here) could force mobile smartphone and tablet makers to place a "kill switch" on their devices in order to prevent theft.
According to The New York Times, Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) is expected to introduce the bill Friday, which would require all smartphones and tablets sold in California to have a kill switch.
Having a feature like this would make the smartphone or tablet unusable if it were stolen. In turn, Leno hopes that this will curb robberies of mobile devices, since they would be more difficult to sell that way....
Similar devices have worked to end car thefts when they were installed by the manufacturer.
...The best theft prevention device (cilck here) on the market is the passive immobilizer, now standard equipment on 98% of General Motors' light duty vehicles and nearly all of the new Fords. These immobilizers use a key that contains a computer chip which communicates with the car's engine. Without the proper key, the only way to steal the car is to tow it away. "Obviously, an immobilizer is more effective than an alarm," says GM spokesman Andrew Schreck. "An audible system is really just a noisemaker, but we can tie an immobilizer directly to the ignition system, to make sure it really is a deterrent. And it doesn't cost us any more than putting in an alarm."
The insurance statistics speak for themselves. When Ford added an immobilizer system to the Ford Mustang, theft rates dropped 77%....
