Apple & Samsung Phones Stress Tested For Antitheft Features

It has been a couple of weeks since I had a month-old iPhone 5 picked right out of my pocket, and it still stings. Obviously, losing a gadget of that caliber will never be okay, but being pickpocketed like a baby added insult to injury. Additionally, factors such as the network provider had no means of tracking the phone down and being away from home to use Find My iPhone via the laptop did not help either.

The phone has been replaced, but the fact remains that I am at a heightened state of awareness (read: paranoid) every time I got out. That’s why I welcome news that smartphones are now being stress tested for antitheft features.

I believe that antitheft features should be strongly installed in every smartphone in the market, and that manufacturers should work hand in hand with telcos to make sure that phone thieves don’t really get anything out of their unscrupulous activities.

As is usually the case when it comes to consumer protection, the government has some hand in things. In this case, with Apple and Samsung phones, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman are the ones spearheading the cause. Based on a report published by CNET, the team is basically making sure that what the manufacturers say are in line with how the phones security features actually work.

This is good news for consumers, as I see it as a sign of stricter measures. In fact, news about Apple adding a kill switch to iPhones has also broken out. While the idea of a kill switch makes us iffy in other contexts, I am pretty sure that iPhone users will welcome this with open arms. More reason to anticipate iOS 7, which is supposed to include this feature.

Good old street smarts will help, of course, but having these security features will help you sleep at night. Or feel better when you’re out there in the concrete jungle.

[Image via Huffington Post]