New York Calls On Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung To Cut Down On Phone Theft

Mobile phone theft is nothing new, and it happens more often than we think. In New York, especially, is where mobile phone thefts were said to be responsible for the city's increase in crime. As public safety officials continue to battle thefts, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has sent an open letter to Apple, Google (including Motorola), Microsoft, and Samsung to see if they can help to cut down on phone theft.

In the letter, Schneiderman criticized the companies for not doing their part in curbing mobile device theft. He wrote that the companies were too involved with the bottom line to take a step back and "create technology to render stolen devices inoperable and thereby eliminate the expanding black market on which they are sold."

Schneiderman also brought up a huge accusation in the open letters, questioning whether or not mobile phone companies weren't helping out with thefts since they benefit from selling replacement devices to users who had their initial device stolen.

Schneiderman is urging all four companies to talk to his office and brief him on their anti-theft efforts, if any. He also wants these companies to help New York and the rest of the country to figure out ways to cut down on device thefts — methods that police officers don't have control over, such as implementing technology that shuts down a device when it's detected as stolen and can locate the suspect.

Of course, Apple has a feature called Find My iPhone that allows users to do a number of things when their device gets stolen, and they even use the GPS to track the location of the stolen phone, as well as the suspect who stole it. Of course, it isn't foolproof, and you can easily wipe the device clean to prevent it being tracked. It's also a feature that isn't on by default, which could be a reason that a lot of users don't have the feature enabled.

In any case, we're interested to see what Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung have to say in response to Schneiderman's open letter. As to whether these companies will jump in and do their part to prevent device theft is yet to be seen, but we wouldn't be surprised if they nonchalantly said, "no thanks."

VIA: Cult of Mac

SOURCE: New York Attorney General