It probably wouldn’t surprise you if I were to tell you that the theft of smart phones and personal tech devices is on the rise. If you think you can leave your smart phone on the outside patio table at a Starbucks and come back in 15 minutes and hope for it to still be there, you’re playing with fire. Indeed, I can remember back in 1999 that I had a smart phone stolen, it was the top-of-the-line of the day, of course nothing compared what we have now, but it was stolen.
Since I knew a little bit about technology I asked for the police department to find out where the phone was, triangulate its position, so I could go catch the guy. They said they had no way to do that, which is absolute nonsense. We’ve always had that ability. In fact they’ve used personal tech devices to find people who were lost in a snow bank or had driven off the road in their automobiles. We’ve used it to catch child abductors, and even bank robbers. But unfortunately the police department will not use it to get your $400 – $600 smart phone back.
I find that amazing because we’ve also learned that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have been tracking people with their personal tech devices for quite a while. And yet when you really need them, they won’t give you the answer to who stole your smart phone device. We even have Internet companies who have been charged with location tracking, and big data marketers who will deliver ads to your smart phone via a special app when you come near one of your favorite stores so they can give you a coupon.
If we have all this technology there shouldn’t be anyone stealing these high-tech devices or your iPhone, they should know they would be caught right away. In case you are wondering if this is a problem or not there was a very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on July 28, 2012 titled; “Fighting the iCrime Wave – Device Theft Has Exploded. New Solutions on the Way. Is the Industry Doing Enough about Apple Picking?” by Rolfe Winkler.
Now then, I just explained to you that we don’t need to wait for solutions from industry, there’s probably already an app for that, and it’s too bad that you can’t activate the app via remote so the police department can get your phone back, unfortunately, as much as we pay in taxes, they tell us they don’t have time for that, well, give me the information, and I’ll go get my own phone back thank you very much.
Look, here’s the deal if we catch the people who are stealing iPhones and smart phones, laptops and other personal tech devices, then eventually no one will steal them anymore because they know they will face jail time. Wouldn’t it be nice, if you could go out in public without having to guard your personal tech devices with your life, because that’s what’s on them. Please consider all this and think on it.