This legislation would require handset manufactures to include special anti-theft software on their devices.
A bill that would require anti-theft technology in the form of a smartphone kill switch to be installed into devices that are going to be sold in California, is now before the state governor after it was passed by a final vote in the Senate.
This mobile security bill was introduced by Senator Mark Leno, with the San Francisco District Attorney’s support.
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon was entirely behind the bill that would require that smartphone kill switch technology be integrated into every one of the devices that would be sold in California. This will provide an added level of mobile security that consumers can choose to keep or that they can choose to eliminate from their own devices. The key is that it will be available to them to either accept or refuse.
A smartphone kill switch will make it possible for users to make their devices inoperable if they are ever stolen.
This mobile security feature bill passed at a vote of 27 to 8. This proposed legislation, which had been called SB962, is the attempt being made by government officials in California to address what they have now labeled to be an “epidemic”. In the United States, 1 in every 10 smartphone owners have experienced the mobile security disaster associated with a stolen cell phone. This, according to figures from Lookout.
Last year, there were over 3 million people in the United States who were the victims of stolen smartphones. According to the data from Consumer Reports, this represented a near doubling over the number of thefts experienced in 2012. In San Francisco, where Gascon calls home, over 65 percent of the robberies that occurred in 2013 included a stolen cell phone. That rate spikes to over 75 percent in Oakland on the other side of the bay.
According to Senator Leno, the smartphone kill switch will be a vital effort in mobile security. He stated that “Our goal is to swiftly take the wind out of the sails of thieves who have made the theft of smartphones one of the most prevalent street crimes in California’s biggest cities.”