Cell phone carriers reject kill switch for stolen smartphones

Carriers don’t want anti-theft software for fear it would eat into the profits.

Lawmakers in San Francisco and New York have been pushing hardware makers like Samsung to provide anti-theft software for cell phones that would allow owners to remotely deactivate a phone should it get stolen, rendering it useless. But according to the San Francisco district attorney, George Gascón, carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint aren’t crazy about the idea of implementing such a “kill switch.” Why? Because they’d lose money.

 

 

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Mobile phone carriers profit from phone theft ‘are not innocent,’ says DC police chief

Carriers benefit from phone theft.

Theft of mobile phones is a massive and growing problem, accounting for more than 40 percent of all thefts in San Francisco in 2012. But is that a good thing for mobile carriers like AT&T and Verizon?

 

 

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Mobile phone carriers keep personal data for up to seven years

cellphone users

The document says AT&T keeps for five to seven years a record of who text messages whom.

The ACLU has obtained a document that shows for the first time how the four largest cellphone companies in the U.S. treat data about their subscribers’ calls, text messages, Web surfing and approximate locations.

 

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