Google and Microsoft to introduce smartphone ‘kill switch’
Google and Microsoft have revealed plans to introduce a remote ‘kill switch’ for their Android and Windows Phone operating systems as a means to incapacitate stolen hardware.
The last resort measure would render the handset completely useless to anyone in possession of it and is intended to deter criminals from stealing such devices in the first place.
Phone theft is a rising problem as the value of gadgets become increasingly common problem with one in three Europeans experiencing the loss or theft of a mobile device in 2013.
Apple and Samsung already offer a similar feature on some models with the former reporting a 24 per cent fall in London iPhone robberies in the six months following introduction of the feature.
A report on the technique published by the New York attorney general read: “An activated kill switch converts an easy-to-sell, high-value multimedia device into a jumble of plastic and glass, drastically reducing its street value."
The move was made as part of the Save our Smartphones campaign.