Kill Switch is a good thing?

A new feature is hopefully being added to smartphones at the start of next year that will have a big impact of crime hopefully. The idea is that it is a device in your phone that you could have activated to completely brick your phone and just make it useless. The idea is that it will completely deter theft of smart phones. If your phone is lost or missing and this might not be the best idea but if your phone is stolen you can completely disable it, rendering it useless. Because there is no point in stealing it, officials are hoping that it will cause them to be stolen less. Now if you can recover your phone the companies say they can retrieve all your data, photos and contacts, so there really is no apparent downside.

But the main concern from companies is that hackers might be able to hack into their computers and just start disabling phones. This is not really really a large issue most officials who back this idea say, because the companies should be able to get you your information back. Lawmakers are some of the strongest supporters of this movement because they believe this will greatly lower the theft of smartphones which has been growing rapidly in the last few years. The companies have been mainly against this idea, saying it's counterproductive and they deemed it not possible a few months ago. But increase in pressure from the customers have lead them to change their mind and in Minnesota, there is currently a law trying to make it mandatory to have this feature in phones for a company to sell. The companies are resisting this change because it would cause a drop in the money they make for replacing phones. If the amount of phones stolen drops so does the amount of warrants that are taken out to help if your phone is stolen. Many customers are switching to phone providers that encourage the kill switch, like Apple, who included a similar feature in their new IOS they just rolled out. The main fear for the supporters is that not enough will use this feature and that it will be left unused so people continue on stealing smart phones.