EFF Opposes California's Cell Phone "Kill Switch" Bill

(EFF.org) EFF sent a letter this week opposing SB 962, a bill by California Senator Mark Leno that mandates every phone that will be sold in the state to have a "kill switch"—a technological solution that would remotely disable a smartphone if, say, it were stolen or lost. Despite our concerns, the bill passed out of committee in the Assembly.

There's a simple reason why we opposed this particular bill—and why we almost always oppose bills with technological mandates. Technology is fast; the law is slow. While there is an important place for policy in a world where the Internet and devices are readily available to both consumers and government actors, institutionalizing specific technical solutions—such as making every cell phone manufacturer feature a "kill switch" program—is risky.

We focused on two issues in this particular case: "lock in" and legitimizing a technical means.

Lock in describes when a particular technology is frozen in place due to a technological mandate, so other technologies—perhaps better technologies—have no chance of competing. In this case, the smartphone security suite features dozens of options for Android, iOS, and Blackberry.

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