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>>This would be an ineffective way to accomplish that. They'd first have to make a list of all the phones in the target area, and then they'd have to send the

>>This would be an ineffective way to accomplish that. They'd first have to make a list of all the phones in the target area, and then they'd have to send the lock commands to them, one by one. Phone[] phones = GetPhonesByGeo(radius=50, lat=102.23412323, lon=-129.4342424); foreach(Phone p in phones) { p.sendmessage("Lock"); } func GetPhonesByGeo(){ // your tax dollars at work }

tzs 12y ago
You need to determine how to send the message to the phone. Flipping the kill switch on an iPhone will require talking to Apple, for instance, whereas I'm pretty sure you would not talk to Apple to flip the kill switch on a Samsung phone. There will be at a minimum three different mechanisms you'd have to deal with (Apple, Google if they build this into Android and all Android phone makers and carriers leave it in place instead of replacing it with their own version, and Microsoft). There could be dozens if Android phone makers go their own way, or if the phone carriers customize the firmware to replace the kill switch from the hardware maker or Google with their own. There is no requirement that an API be provided to law enforcement. That "sendmessage" method could come down to someone on the law enforcement side getting on the phone with Apple or Google or Microsoft or a service provider and telling them the numbers to kill. This is assuming that Apple or Google or whoever even can flip the kill switch without the assistance of the phone's authorized user. They could easily design the kill switch system so that the person flipping the switch has to know the authorized user's password [1]. There is nothing in the bill that I see that says they have to design the kill mechanism to allow law enforcement or the manufacturer or the carrier to be able to use it. [1] For instance, the phone could ask for your iCloud or Google account information when you set up the kill switch for the first time, and then it could store on the phone a hash of the concatenation of your password and the phone serial number. The kill switch mechanism could require that the kill command include that hash, thus proving to the phone that the sender had access to your password.
raverbashing 12y ago
Very funny You don't know what you are talking about. EDIT: yes, please, go ahead and explain how you're going to get phone's location geographically. Hint: not everybody has data turned on always. Or GPS. This is not a Batman movie you know
- hobs 12y ago
  What about CPS? The towers know where they are, and they know you are communicating with them. Its not perfect, but they can get your position by just measuring your signal strength to the multiple towers and triangulate the rest. No, this is not a batman movie. For more, check out http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=5519760&KC=&FT=E&locale=en_EP http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=...

tzs 12y ago

You need to determine how to send the message to the phone. Flipping the kill switch on an iPhone will require talking to Apple, for instance, whereas I'm pretty sure you would not talk to Apple to flip the kill switch on a Samsung phone. There will be at a minimum three different mechanisms you'd have to deal with (Apple, Google if they build this into Android and all Android phone makers and carriers leave it in place instead of replacing it with their own version, and Microsoft). There could be dozens if Android phone makers go their own way, or if the phone carriers customize the firmware to replace the kill switch from the hardware maker or Google with their own. There is no requirement that an API be provided to law enforcement. That "sendmessage" method could come down to someone on the law enforcement side getting on the phone with Apple or Google or Microsoft or a service provider and telling them the numbers to kill. This is assuming that Apple or Google or whoever even can flip the kill switch without the assistance of the phone's authorized user. They could easily design the kill switch system so that the person flipping the switch has to know the authorized user's password [1]. There is nothing in the bill that I see that says they have to design the kill mechanism to allow law enforcement or the manufacturer or the carrier to be able to use it. [1] For instance, the phone could ask for your iCloud or Google account information when you set up the kill switch for the first time, and then it could store on the phone a hash of the concatenation of your password and the phone serial number. The kill switch mechanism could require that the kill command include that hash, thus proving to the phone that the sender had access to your password.

raverbashing 12y ago

Very funny You don't know what you are talking about. EDIT: yes, please, go ahead and explain how you're going to get phone's location geographically. Hint: not everybody has data turned on always. Or GPS. This is not a Batman movie you know

hobs 12y ago
What about CPS? The towers know where they are, and they know you are communicating with them. Its not perfect, but they can get your position by just measuring your signal strength to the multiple towers and triangulate the rest. No, this is not a batman movie. For more, check out http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=5519760&KC=&FT=E&locale=en_EP http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=...