There are plenty of stories about iPhone thefts causing spikes in crime statistics, but according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Apple’s introduction of an iPhone kill switch may be starting to turn around.
Measuring crime after the iPhone’s Activation Lock was first introduced in iOS 7, police in San Francisco, London, and New York claim that San Francisco robberies fell by 38 percent, London robberies by 24 percent, and New York robberies by 19 percent — while grand larcenies in NYC including the iPhone dropped 29 percent in the first five months of 2014, compared to the same time period last year.
“The introduction of kill switches has clearly had an effect on the conduct of smartphone thieves,” Schneiderman says. “If these can be canceled like the equivalent of canceling a credit card, these are going to be the equivalent of stealing a paperweight.”
Having previously teamed with San Francisco attorney George Gascón to spearhead a crackdown on smartphone thefts, Schneiderman has previously praised Apple’s Activation Lock as the “world’s first attempt to implement a technological solution to the global smartphone theft epidemic.”
This April, Apple has entered into a voluntary agreement with the makers of several other smartphones to include anti-theft technology on all phones going on sale after July 2015. The combination of Apple’s Activation Lock and much-lauded Find My iPhone features mean that Apple likely already fits the various requirements of the agreement.
Source: New York Times
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
One response to “Activation Lock responsible for massive drop in iPhone thefts”
It’s a rather effective feature :)