With an aim to put a curb on growing smartphone thefts, Governor Jerry Brown of California has signed the ‘Kill switch’ bill into a law. Starting July 1st, 2015, the law will require all smartphone makers to install kill switch on the phones that lets users remotely lock them in case they are stolen.
A kill switch is software that allows consumers to disable a phone after the device has been reported stolen and reactivate it only with a correct password or personal identification number. The law doesn’t specify how the system locks the phone, nor what happens to the data on the phone when it’s locked. Each manufacturer can come up with their own system.
The bill (SB-962) was introduced by Senator Mark Leno in February of this year and is touted to be the first of its kind. California became the second state after Minnesota to enact such a law. Many of the biggest telecommunication companies, such as Apple, Google and Samsung, agreed earlier this year to voluntarily add kill-switch capability on phones after July 1 of next year.
A fine of up to $2,500 will be assessed for every device sold after July 1st, 2015 that does not comply with this new law. Earlier this month Google updated Android Device Manager with call back and message options for locked phones.