6 ms·

If thieves take your car for a joyride, do you email Ford to complain?

rmc 14y ago
For a car, no. But if your credit card is stolen and then used, then yes, you contact your bank and they tell the police the details.
- proparg 14y ago
  Because otherwise you'd have to pay for any transactions. The bank is preventing fraud, not tracking down thiefs.
  - d3c0d3dab0d3 14y ago
    they could prevent fraud by disabling the card.
return0 14y ago
What's the point of this analogy? Technology has advanced and it's normal to expect geolocating. If it was a tesla instead of a ford, i 'm pretty sure the owner would call them.
- solarflair 14y ago
  The point of the analogy is that recovering and locating stolen property is the responsibility of law enforcement, not manufacturers & retailers.
JanezStupar 14y ago
You would if Ford had information about the current status of your car. E.g. - If your car was a Tesla, then I guess that turning to Tesla would be just the thing to do. When your cell phone get stolen, your mobile provider(s) are the right people to turn to. Or what exactly would you do?
- EwanToo 14y ago
  If it was a $50,000 car, I'd expect the police to put in a fair bit more effort to recovering it than a $50 kindle. When your cell phone gets stolen, the police are the right people to turn to, not your network provider.
  - DanBC 14y ago
    In the UK there was a problem of people reporting their phones stolen so they could break the contract. One police station I walked into had a sign saying that they investigate all reported phone theft, and would vigorously prosecute anyone making a false report. In general you report the phone to your service provider (so they can block the IMEI (and there's a potential 5 year prison sentence for people who change that) and then the police to get a crime reference number and then whoever has insured the phone (sometimes the provider) to give them the reference number. Perhaps this is a niche for a specialist to enter. Create some tool that gives law enforcement and phone providers easy to use data-mining to allow them to track stolen phones and catch thieves. (I haven't described it well, but this would be something with tight integration between law enforcement and providers; it'd have some kind of auditing to ensure correct legal documentation; it would allow data on many phones to be displayed so you could heat map where phones are stolen from or where stolen phones are ending up, etc.)
    - thisone 14y ago
      how were people "legally" breaking contract doing this? It would seem more like an insurance scam. Unless mobile contracts have since changed, of course.
      - DanBC 14y ago
        It isn't legal. They weren't interested in the insurance, they just wanted to use that phone on a different provider or to get a new phone.
        thisone 14y ago
protomyth 14y ago
If you have Ford's version of OnStar, then yes you do and they lock the damn car down. Amazon has control over the devices they sell you. They seem to use this power to purge books from your device. They could be a bit more helpful and lock the device and provide law enforcement the information. Asking for a warrant or other court order is just making an economic decision not a moral one.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  That's a separate paid for service specifically designed for this.
  - protomyth 14y ago
    Yes, but Apple's find my phone isn't, and Amazon expects to continue earning money and providing services to Kindle owners long after the purchase. It is a simple case of maximizing profits over customer service. Much like PayPal and eBays foolishness from a customer perspective, but great from a bottom line.
    - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
      Fair enough but Apple advertise the feature, Amazon don't. The primary issue here for me is actually around data protection and privacy. Amazon are being asked to give up private data to the police without the owners permission (remember the data now on the Kindle is owned by the thief) based on nothing more than an allegation (at this point how do the police know that the device has been stolen, that it's not disputed ownership or been sold on?). I can see why the owner is frustrated but I can also see why Amazon are doing what they're doing. We're very quick to give organisations grief when they start giving out personal details unreasonably (and rightly so) but one consequence of that is organisations will likely move to a safety first model which seems to be happening here.

rmc 14y ago

For a car, no. But if your credit card is stolen and then used, then yes, you contact your bank and they tell the police the details.

proparg 14y ago
Because otherwise you'd have to pay for any transactions. The bank is preventing fraud, not tracking down thiefs.
- d3c0d3dab0d3 14y ago
  they could prevent fraud by disabling the card.

return0 14y ago

What's the point of this analogy? Technology has advanced and it's normal to expect geolocating. If it was a tesla instead of a ford, i 'm pretty sure the owner would call them.

solarflair 14y ago
The point of the analogy is that recovering and locating stolen property is the responsibility of law enforcement, not manufacturers & retailers.

JanezStupar 14y ago

You would if Ford had information about the current status of your car. E.g. - If your car was a Tesla, then I guess that turning to Tesla would be just the thing to do. When your cell phone get stolen, your mobile provider(s) are the right people to turn to. Or what exactly would you do?

EwanToo 14y ago
If it was a $50,000 car, I'd expect the police to put in a fair bit more effort to recovering it than a $50 kindle. When your cell phone gets stolen, the police are the right people to turn to, not your network provider.
- DanBC 14y ago
  In the UK there was a problem of people reporting their phones stolen so they could break the contract. One police station I walked into had a sign saying that they investigate all reported phone theft, and would vigorously prosecute anyone making a false report. In general you report the phone to your service provider (so they can block the IMEI (and there's a potential 5 year prison sentence for people who change that) and then the police to get a crime reference number and then whoever has insured the phone (sometimes the provider) to give them the reference number. Perhaps this is a niche for a specialist to enter. Create some tool that gives law enforcement and phone providers easy to use data-mining to allow them to track stolen phones and catch thieves. (I haven't described it well, but this would be something with tight integration between law enforcement and providers; it'd have some kind of auditing to ensure correct legal documentation; it would allow data on many phones to be displayed so you could heat map where phones are stolen from or where stolen phones are ending up, etc.)
  - thisone 14y ago
    how were people "legally" breaking contract doing this? It would seem more like an insurance scam. Unless mobile contracts have since changed, of course.
    - DanBC 14y ago
      It isn't legal. They weren't interested in the insurance, they just wanted to use that phone on a different provider or to get a new phone.
      - thisone 14y ago

protomyth 14y ago

If you have Ford's version of OnStar, then yes you do and they lock the damn car down. Amazon has control over the devices they sell you. They seem to use this power to purge books from your device. They could be a bit more helpful and lock the device and provide law enforcement the information. Asking for a warrant or other court order is just making an economic decision not a moral one.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
That's a separate paid for service specifically designed for this.
- protomyth 14y ago
  Yes, but Apple's find my phone isn't, and Amazon expects to continue earning money and providing services to Kindle owners long after the purchase. It is a simple case of maximizing profits over customer service. Much like PayPal and eBays foolishness from a customer perspective, but great from a bottom line.
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    Fair enough but Apple advertise the feature, Amazon don't. The primary issue here for me is actually around data protection and privacy. Amazon are being asked to give up private data to the police without the owners permission (remember the data now on the Kindle is owned by the thief) based on nothing more than an allegation (at this point how do the police know that the device has been stolen, that it's not disputed ownership or been sold on?). I can see why the owner is frustrated but I can also see why Amazon are doing what they're doing. We're very quick to give organisations grief when they start giving out personal details unreasonably (and rightly so) but one consequence of that is organisations will likely move to a safety first model which seems to be happening here.