Minnesota Passes Smartphone Kill-Switch Legislation

Minnesota has become the first US state to introduce legislation that requires all smartphones sold to have a kill-switch feature in the event that the device is lost or stolen.

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have been campaigning for such a measure and last month, manufacturers and operators agreed to include a “baseline anti-theft tool” in handsets sold in the US. However this is the first time such a requirement has been written into law.

“Any new smart phone manufactured on or after July 1, 2015, sold or purchased in Minnesota must be equipped with preloaded antitheft functionality or be capable of downloading that functionality,” reads the legislation. “The functionality must be available to purchasers at no cost.”

US kill switch

It is hoped the presence of a kill switch would deter would-be thieves, with one in three robberies in the US involving a smartphone. It is also claimed that lost or stolen devices cost US consumers $30 billion each year, while it is believed 10,000 mobile phones a month are stolen in London.

The feature agreed by operators and manufacturers in the US includes the ability to remotely wipe data and render the device inoperable to anyone but an authorised user. The tool should also prevent reactivation without permission, including unauthorised factory reset attempts, to the extent of what is technologically possible, but ensure that if the smartphone is recovered, users can regain access and be able to restore wiped data, possibly via the cloud.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has been a proactive supporter of a similar measure in the UK. He has contacted contacted his counterparts in New York and San Francisco and has written to the UK heads of Apple, BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, Microsoft and Sony demanding they work together to create an anti-theft system.

The UK government has made a number of attempts to control the rise of mobile phone thefts, but these have so far failed to reduce the incident numbers. Recycling firms have agreed to a code of practice designed to prevent criminals from selling them stolen mobile phones, while police are able to identify stolen handsets using the National Mobile Phone Register (NMPR).

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