In 2012, over 1.5 million smartphones were stolen in the U.S., but some companies are hoping to change that with a new anti-theft measure called a "kill switch."
The idea would essentially make stolen or lost phone inoperable, but so far the nation's biggest carriers have rejected the idea, according to the Associated Press.
District Attorney George Gascon said this week that AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, United States Cellular Corp., Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. rejected Samsung Electronics proposal to preload all phones with Absolute LoJack anti-theft software as a standard feature.
Many experts believe a kill switch is a waste of time because it would allow a hacker to disable someone's phone.
Others believe the real reason they're against kill switching phones is because they would lose money on reactivation of resold phones, insurance plans, and a loss of sales for replacement phones, according to CNN.
"I think that this is motivated by profit," said San Francisco district attorney George Gascon.
Almost 1 in 3 U.S. robberies last year involved phones, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Ten percent of phone owners have had a phone stolen in their lifetime, according to a Harris poll.
"CTIA and its member companies worked hard over the last year to help law enforcement with its stolen phone problem," said CTIA Vice President Jamie Hastings in a statement. "The industry, with direction from the Federal Communications Commission, law enforcement officials from major cities and other policymakers worked collaboratively to develop a proactive, multifaceted approach to dry up the aftermarket for stolen phones."
Unlike Android phones, Apple controls all aspects of its devices, meaning if it wanted to add the feature to its phones, it could without carrier approval. Apple previously used a kill-switch like option called Activation Lock to iPhones and iPads when iOS 7 was released.
CBS News senior correspondent and FBI insider John Miller said on "CBS This Morning," that other kill switch options are not as good because it puts a lot of pressure on the phone's owner.
"You have to get on the stolen phone registry, you have to go find your phone, you have to go do this, with the Apple thing, you just say, through one device to another, 'you're a paperweight now,'" Miller said. "And look, in 1994, they broke into every car and stole every radio in New York. Until the car people and the radio people got together and they said, 'If you take the radio out of a car, it'll never work in another car,' this chip doesn't match that chip, they stopped stealing radios. Never happened again."
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