The IT Nerd

Something that has always bothered by having a smartphone is that they are “must steal” items for thieves due to the fact that they resell for such high dollar values. But those days may be coming to an end with the announcement that Canada’s wireless providers will have a database of lost and stolen smartphones online by 2013:

The move would also help protect personal data on such devices, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association said Thursday.

Smartphones are worth $600 to $700 and can be resold on the black market, noted association president Bernard Lord.

“With this database, it makes that a lot less attractive because the buyer of the stolen phone will not be able to connect to any network in Canada,” Lord said from Ottawa.

“It eliminates the incentive for stealing a device.”

The idea is also to reduce the black market value of a smartphone in the eyes of criminals, Lord added.

Once consumers call their wireless carrier to report their smartphone lost or stolen, the device’s internal identification number goes on the electronic blacklist.

This is a good step that I think will reduce smartphone theft. But it’s a first step. I think other things have to be done varying from stiffer penalties for theft and the use of tracking technologies such as “Find My iPhone” by Apple. Those will also help as well.

What are your thoughts? Share your wisdom below.

This entry was posted on November 8, 2012 at 8:12 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, wireless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.