Met Police Shares Stolen Phone Data With Apple to Block Reuse
Apple will help block reactivation of stolen handsets as the Met says the move is cutting criminals’ profits and reducing thefts.
- On Thursday, the Metropolitan Police revealed it began sharing data with Apple to track stolen handsets and build a "global picture" of whether devices reconnect to phone networks after theft.
- International trade in stolen phones is worth millions of dollars, with devices stolen in London frequently trafficked to China, which lacks government restrictions to block their reuse.
- Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley noted reactivation rates for stolen phones fell from 80% to about 20% in recent weeks as Apple improved security features like Activation Lock.
- Officers launched Operation Reckoning, using drones to pursue thieves on e-bikes; the four-week crackdown resulted in 248 arrests and recovery of 770 stolen devices.
- Rowley is pressing Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to enforce legislation requiring phone companies to publish stolen-device data and render handsets "unusable bricks" once reported as stolen.
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36 Articles
‘This is going to make a massive difference’: iPhone snatchers are being foiled by our new Apple partnership, says the UK’s Met Police — and another clever iOS trick could be coming soon
The Met Police and Apple want to make stolen phones useless, and progress is already being made on that front.
Met Commissioner: Polarised debate is making policing a political football
Met police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has urged the government to force mobile phone companies to instal anti-theft technology in new devices – making them impossible to reconnect after being stolen. The Met says their efforts to tackle phone snatching on the streets of London have seen incidents fall by 18% compared to the previous year. Sir Mark also commented on the current political pressures facing policing nationally.
Apple Kill Switch Makes Stolen iPhones Unsellable Worldwide — What Every Phone Owner Should Do Today
Apple has switched on a kill switch by default for iPhones worldwide, locking stolen handsets so they cannot be resold, after a data-sharing deal with London's Metropolitan Police cut reactivations of snatched devices by around 60%. The change, rolled out through Apple's latest iOS security update, means a phone reported as lost cannot be reactivated without its owner's password. Police chiefs say it strips the resale value out of a crime that t…
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