OXFORD, United Kingdom—Mobile phones should be equipped with satellite tracking and theft alarms, according to the U.K.-based Design Council. The organization claimed that if cell-phone manufacturers adopt these two examples, the number of thefts of mobile devices would decline rapidly.
According to Clive Grinyer, director of design and innovation at the Design Council, cell-phone manufacturers and service providers spend a lot on advertising and brand communication, but have damaged their images by being seen to have done too little, too late to combat phone theft.
“Clever and innovative design could be used effectively to combat crime, but security needs to be built into products and services from the start,” he said.
Other security measures suggested by Grinyer include dedicated phone chargers that would only work with a specific phone, low-cost mobiles that are not worth stealing, handsets that only work in proximity to a trigger chip and more effective communication of existing security measures.
“The mobile phone industry needs to learn the lesson of the automotive industry,” said Grinyer. “Car crime has fallen sharply in recent years as car manufacturers have built higher levels of security into their products.”
A recent market study concluded that more than 1.3 million people, around 4 percent of mobile users, in the United Kingdom had a cell phone stolen during the past 12 months. Londoners were reported as being more than twice as likely to have had their phones stolen than mobile users in the rest of the United Kingdom.
