Apple has agreed to share identifiers of stolen phones with the London police so they can be tracked and disabled. The goal is simple: a stolen iPhone can no longer be reactivated, leaving the thief holding nothing but a worthless "brick." The British newspaper Daily Mail, which had lobbied for the change for years, called it a "kill switch." Apple announced the agreement on June 10, and Google and Samsung are preparing similar changes. The National ↗ Daily Mail ↗
The step is the culmination of a two-and-a-half-year campaign by London Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley. Police had demanded that anti-theft protection be enabled automatically, that they get better access to IMEI data, and that companies publish statistics on reconnected stolen devices. "If stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses — and with it the motive to steal them," Rowley declared. The agreement was also welcomed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The National ↗ The National ↗
London is the epicenter of phone snatching, with organized gangs exporting the devices abroad or stripping them for parts — and the first results are already visible. In central Westminster, phone thefts have fallen by almost half this year, and by roughly a fifth across the whole city; 83 percent of the public supports permanently blocking stolen phones. The logic is simple: destroy the black-market value and you destroy the motive to steal. The National ↗
Apple has agreed with police to turn stolen iPhones into worthless "bricks"
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