

Cellphone Thefts Grow, but the Industry Looks the Other Way - danso
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/technology/cellphone-thefts-grow-but-the-industry-looks-the-other-way.html?hp&pagewanted=all

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bradddd
Interesting point. Are we wanting the phone (i.e. the manufacturer) to brick
the device when it's been perceived as stolen? I had always thought of
cellphones like bikes and assumed that there'd always be some inevitable
amount of theft, but the two devices aren't actually that similar.

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quux
I think there's enough of an incentive for hackers to figure out how to
unbrick these phones that it wouldn't be much of a deterrent.

If the bricking were truly permanent, like blowing an efuse or something, the
risk of false positives bricking phones that aren't really lost is probably
higher than the phone makers are comfortable with.

