A Kill Switch for Stolen iPods?
Marc Hinch | November 16, 2008 | 20 comments
Check out our first stoleniPod.com poll. The iPhone is supposed to have a kill switch for applications. Why not the iPod to shut it down. Maybe it could display a message: “This iPod is Stolen!” “Turn it in to the Police.” What do you think?
Check out the poll below.
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Gee, I wonder which answer is going to get the most votes?
Category: polls
This would be the best idea for apple to do, my new 16 gb ipod touch stolen today and im pretty sure im never gettin it back so id rather destroy it then let that person who stole it enjoy what i paid for
I wish I could block my ipod like I can a phone. Do the people who stole it now have access to my account details?
I also would love this my son’s got stolen a week ago. Would love to be able to shut it down.
these i pods are a big market for stolen trading and buying….i think i pod …aplle are idiots for not adding it from the beggining….i think it is just another way for them to make a lot of money once introduced into the market place
My 80gb classic was stolen out of my car while at a friends house last night. The worst part was that ipod was replacing the 2gb nano I had for 6 years that was stolen before christmas. I would love to have a kill switch system that could be tied in to the serial number on the original box.
i was thinking about this just today – my ipod along with about $100 worth of stuff was stolen last night and the first thing i thought of was if there was some way to deactivate my ipod. If i cant use, i sure as hell dont qwant the git who stoll it to be able to use it or make any kind of profit from it. I see no reason why it cant work just like a credit card or phone as well as allowing for some reactivation method if it turns up!
This is a most controversial topic. Will this really stop people from stealing and reselling iPods? 90% of the time, the people stealing your phone don’t care about the data you have on it. They are forced to erase it anyways, before they can resell it to anyone else. Will this application make the device obsolete? Or only erase the data?
Does Apple pay for the iPods that it happens to by accident? “If I don’t like my iPod, I will destruct it and then take it to the store for a new one” — Joe Blow
A data erasing application for the iPod/iPhone only helps the criminal. It’s less they have to do later. Not to mention, as we all know and understand, all data can never be truly erased. If they are trying to get your data, and they know what they are doing, they won’t be stopped by a self destruct application.
I keep seeing these stupid people who don’t understand what it is we want Apple to do. We are not saying that they should be responsible, or that they should erase the data/memory of the stolen ipod, but what they should, and already have the ability to do is reject/or track the serial number if and when the ipod is hooked up to the internet. We understand that an ipod can work without being connected to the internet, but IF the stolen ipod does get connected, is it so much to ask that only the registered owner be able to use it? This does not mean that for example my husband can’t use it, it means that if it is reported stolen, then the next time it goes online, it gets tracked or shut down. I saw one idiot who said “you don’t need to use you Vin# to get gas to prove the car is yours” well the answer is no, but try driving a stolen car without getting pulled over, because the police will frequently run your plate number if they are behind you (even if you have done nothing wrong)and when they run you plate, the owners name and other information comes up, and no one is screaming about privacy issues there are they! besides that the same guy with the gas comment also said “we can’t track stolen cars, and people still buy them” that comment shows how dumb this person is. My truck, a plain and simple Mercury Mountaineer, has many anti-theft devices, including the sound system, which if the stereo panel is stolen, it will not work in any other vehicle, the DVD player also works that way. it also has a default that will disable it if the steering column is broken at all. it also has gps tracking, so I can find its location, at any time actually, my SUV actually e-mails me if it needs anything, like an oil change, or if there is something worng. If we can do that why not simply track the ipods. They can set it up so only those who agree can have the theft protection set up, so that if it is stolen, it can be tracked, that way all those who are nervous about thier information being tracked, used or sold, can simply not agree to have the theft tracking available. This idiot even commented that if your TV gets stolen the cable company doesn’t track it, well no, but if they try to pawn your television there is a tracking system that police and pawn shops use where they enter the serial numbers and descriptions of every item pawned, and if the item is reported stolen, it get red flagged and the police come and pick it up along with the information of the person who pawned it off. Should pawn shops be responsable for making sure your stuff isn’t in their store,No, but they do it, to deter theives from selling off stolen stuff, which makes them not want to steel it, no if they sell it to joe blow, your out of luck, but at least they are doing something, unlike Apple. I paid over $300 for my husbands ipod, for that much money the least they can do is red flag an ipod that had been reported stolen, and try to help. We all know Apple is making plenty of money.
For all the idiots, please stop blaming the victim. It is not my fault. I let my neighbor in my home for five minutes, and the B**ch swiped it right off the table. I know in this day and age you can’t trust people, and I usually don’t, but who would think that a 55 year old later with a cane would steel right out of my home. sorry for the super long message, but I really get ticked off by stupid people.
My ipod along with all the christmas gift were stolen from my house and now out on the market somewhere.
I hate crimenals
What Apple can do is log the IP of whoever connects to I-tunes with a stolen I-pod. The seriel number is known by the I-Tunes softeare and Apple could keep a list to compare them to only a couple minutes of coding would do it. Only question is what apple does when a stolen seriel number reports in, I guess log it and notify the cops.
Sooooo wish this would happen. My ipod got stolen and i wish the person would just get an ipod that doesn’t work insteasd of getting to enjoy it
My ipod was stolen this morning…I’m sure by a kid on the way to school and while my car warmed up before leaving for work…I hope he/she enjoys my mix of classical and jazz and seventies tunes…
My daughters first ipod was stolen by someone she knew. I called Apple and reported it. Luckily the Police when they questioned this girl she admitted and her parents replaced the ipod. Well, that ipod was stolen out of my daughter’s backpack during class, because they have to leave them by the door. I called Apple once more to report. What ticks me, is the first time I called in the spring they informed me that they were working on a tracking system for stolen ipods, guess it’s not done yet. Hopefully we will get it back, as we now know who stole this one and have his name. Let the Police begin.
Apple should do the responsible thing and install a switch that kills the ipod immediately after it is reported stolen. What good is it to anyone then? Yes, there will be some schmucks that continue to steal them, but people would think twice about buying them except from a store.
I refused to give Apple anymore money when my nano was stolen. I figured if a company does not give a rats butt about it’s customers, why would I continue to buy their products, and I have not.
I voted no, because, while a kill switch would be nice, it won’t return my, and my daughter’s, IPod Touch. Yes, they both were stolen from our home. The better solution would be for Apple to include tracking software on all IPods/IPhones which, when the device is reported stolen, would allow it to be GPS located whenever its serial number hits ITunes. This would be a simple solution and would prevent theft. Come on, Apple, it’s time to step up! Unless, of course, you just want everyone who has their IPod stolen to go out and purchase another. Could that be it?
I’m sorry for anyone who has had an iPods stolen. But I saw the poll, and I wanted to mention that whoever had this idea has no idea of how the internet, or iPods, work.
iPhones can have a “kill switch” because they need to connect to a service provider to be anything more than an expensive paperweight.
The iPod touch is the only iPod to even connect to the internet. The others obviously can’t be tracked. But even if a stolen iPod goes online, how, exactly, is it supposed to get a “kill” command?
The iPod doesn’t know it is stolen, unless it gets that command, and I don’t think thieves will go to stolenipod.com in order to get their iPod bricked (“killed”/whatever).
Apple isn’t going to start tracking ip addresses. That would be a horrible invasion of privacy, and people would just stop visiting the iTunes store. (Obviously, you couldn’t have an opt-out…thieves would just use that.) So to prevent theft, Apple would have to implement a hugely expense database that scares all of its customers away.
There might be a way to implement an app that “phones home” if it falls into the wrong hands…but, even if that managed to get approved by the iTunes App Store (unlikely), there’s no such thing as software that can’t be removed by wiping the internal drive clean.
Thank you for your reply. I think the Kill Switch poll is getting a little old now and I’m going to shut it down soon.
my ipod touch got stollen today at school i went to almost every classroom looking for it and still have not found it …. the worst part is i had $86 inbetween the ipod and the ipod case…(i know im an idiot for having it there the first place) but that would just be the best thing like EVER im so pisses ppl have acces to my email and photos of me and my friends boohoo
I agree this would be great for apple! I had mine stolen today, at least an app to create some type of help for those who lost theirs and save their information and such!
How do I make sure that access to credit is stopped on stolen ipod?
Apple is sure worried about protecting their intellectual property, with all the safeguards on music, apps and downloads. You would think they would give a seconds’ thought to protecting their customers propoerty.