The phone-tracking software gives many users peace of mind – but when my
phone was stolen last week, police told me they could not go knocking
on doors to find it
Read more;http://www.techblown.com/
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| How well does Find My iPhone really work? Photograph: Haim Behar/flickr Editorial/Getty Images |
When my phone was snatched in a London bar last week, I used Apple's
Find My iPhone feature to track it down. GPS allowed me to see my stolen
phone briefly appear on Oxford Street, Regent Street… a brief pause
while, presumably, the thief was on the underground… and then a North
London housing estate best known for being the childhood home of Johnny
Rotten. Now I knew where my stolen stuff was. Or did I?
Later, in the police station, the duty PC told me wearily that despite the increasing references to iPhone tracking by victims, police are unable to act because the data is too unspecific. Police can't attend, he explained, because GPS doesn't give a flat number. It seemed both reasonable and infuriating.
“I am unaware of any law that would prevent us from tracking your phone but we have no powers to enter a property unless we know that it is there,” he later told me. “The phone tracker was erratic, and that would make the phone very hard to find.”
The Royal College of Policing won't comment on specific guidelines about using Find My iPhone for investigations. “Officers use many different ways of investigating crime and information retrieved from an app would be a reasonable line of inquiry to follow up. Police receive information through different channels, and whether that is in person at a station or through an app, officers have a duty to assess the information and take appropriate action to prevent or detect crime.”
The feature itself was never developed for use by police, however, and can only be accessed with the username and password of the phone's owner. Find My iPhone is free, and now built in to every phone running iOS 5 software or newer and registered with iCloud. Apple is careful not to promote the feature as a way of tracking down a stolen device, but does offer a remote wipe feature if that happens.
There are also several well-covered stories about Apple users who have tracked criminals down in person, including a Manchester man who chased a thief onto a bus and confronted him. In the US, there have also been cases of crimes solved by police themselves using the app, including the arrest of an armed robber in LA in 2011.
The more enthusiastic use of Find My iPhone by US police is a cultural rather than legal approach; in 2013, NYPD even produced flyers encouraging New Yorkers to upgrade to iOS 7, which includes tighter password protection for password-protected devices. Making the phone harder to get into means the phone can't be wiped and resold as easily, and if the phone can still be tracked, it's a less attractive target to steal.
Police in the UK seem more selective about how they uses telecoms data. “The police use cell site evidence a lot, but mainly to place criminals at a specific place at a specific time,” says Iain Johnstone of Tuckers Solicitors.
“I can see no reason why they should not use GPS tracking to recover stolen property, but for some reason they don't seem to do so. It may be that they don’t think GPS is accurate enough to be certain of the address.”
So UK police will knock on a door if they hear your stolen phone ringing on the other side, but they need to be willing and able go to that door. In the meantime, are we condemned to tracking stolen possessions without recovering them, or attempting amateur detective work?
“With the introduction of iCloud, our information is now always available,” says David Prince, IT security director for law firm Schillings, “and the structures in place to defend against criminal harm do seem somewhat behind the times when it comes to the digital revolution.”
We can retain data even if we lose a device, and we can erase data on stolen devices – but what about getting the device itself back? “Currently, one of the worst things you can do is assume that local law enforcement can take care of it, as this, in a lot of cases is not realistic,” advises Prince.
I learned that the hard way. But at least the Johnny Rotten who snatched my phone will find that it’s blocked, erased, and now displays my contact details with the message: ‘This phone was stolen’.
Later, in the police station, the duty PC told me wearily that despite the increasing references to iPhone tracking by victims, police are unable to act because the data is too unspecific. Police can't attend, he explained, because GPS doesn't give a flat number. It seemed both reasonable and infuriating.
“I am unaware of any law that would prevent us from tracking your phone but we have no powers to enter a property unless we know that it is there,” he later told me. “The phone tracker was erratic, and that would make the phone very hard to find.”
The Royal College of Policing won't comment on specific guidelines about using Find My iPhone for investigations. “Officers use many different ways of investigating crime and information retrieved from an app would be a reasonable line of inquiry to follow up. Police receive information through different channels, and whether that is in person at a station or through an app, officers have a duty to assess the information and take appropriate action to prevent or detect crime.”
The feature itself was never developed for use by police, however, and can only be accessed with the username and password of the phone's owner. Find My iPhone is free, and now built in to every phone running iOS 5 software or newer and registered with iCloud. Apple is careful not to promote the feature as a way of tracking down a stolen device, but does offer a remote wipe feature if that happens.
There are also several well-covered stories about Apple users who have tracked criminals down in person, including a Manchester man who chased a thief onto a bus and confronted him. In the US, there have also been cases of crimes solved by police themselves using the app, including the arrest of an armed robber in LA in 2011.
The more enthusiastic use of Find My iPhone by US police is a cultural rather than legal approach; in 2013, NYPD even produced flyers encouraging New Yorkers to upgrade to iOS 7, which includes tighter password protection for password-protected devices. Making the phone harder to get into means the phone can't be wiped and resold as easily, and if the phone can still be tracked, it's a less attractive target to steal.
Police in the UK seem more selective about how they uses telecoms data. “The police use cell site evidence a lot, but mainly to place criminals at a specific place at a specific time,” says Iain Johnstone of Tuckers Solicitors.
“I can see no reason why they should not use GPS tracking to recover stolen property, but for some reason they don't seem to do so. It may be that they don’t think GPS is accurate enough to be certain of the address.”
So UK police will knock on a door if they hear your stolen phone ringing on the other side, but they need to be willing and able go to that door. In the meantime, are we condemned to tracking stolen possessions without recovering them, or attempting amateur detective work?
“With the introduction of iCloud, our information is now always available,” says David Prince, IT security director for law firm Schillings, “and the structures in place to defend against criminal harm do seem somewhat behind the times when it comes to the digital revolution.”
We can retain data even if we lose a device, and we can erase data on stolen devices – but what about getting the device itself back? “Currently, one of the worst things you can do is assume that local law enforcement can take care of it, as this, in a lot of cases is not realistic,” advises Prince.
I learned that the hard way. But at least the Johnny Rotten who snatched my phone will find that it’s blocked, erased, and now displays my contact details with the message: ‘This phone was stolen’.
Read more;http://www.techblown.com/
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