Tech bosses could stop mobile phone theft, say MPs

Tech giants together with Apple, Samsung and Google usually are not doing sufficient to cease cell phone thefts, MPs on the Science, Innovation and Expertise Committee have stated.

In a letter to the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, committee chair Chi Onwurah accused the businesses of failing to place in place technical measures that will make stolen telephones much less beneficial.

The letter follows a stormy committee hearing, the place MPs accused tech bosses of benefiting from cellphone thefts.

Responding to the letter, Google stated it had “invested in superior theft safety options” together with the theft detection lock after “listening to victims and partnering intently with legislation enforcement and trade”.

Apple and Samsung have additionally been contacted for remark.

Writing to Mahmood, Onwurah stated that throughout the listening to in June, the committee had sought to “reply the query: Is there a solution to design out cellphone theft?”

“The reply, within the view of the committee, is sure.”

The issue of cell phone thefts is especially prevalent in London the place, in 2024, 80,000 smartphones had been reported as stolen – up from 64,000 in 2023.

The Metroplitan Police has estimated 78% of stolen gadgets had been later related to abroad networks.

Stolen gadgets are blocked from getting used within the UK by cellphone networks through the use of the cellphone’s distinctive figuring out quantity – often called an IMEI – however this isn’t the case globally.

Onwurah argued that “sturdy technical measures” resembling blocking stolen telephones taken abroad from accessing cloud companies might make gadgets “far much less beneficial”.

She additionally pointed to feedback by Cell UK, the commerce affiliation of the UK’s cellular community operators, who stated blocking IMEI in different international locations was a “essential step to dismantle the enterprise mannequin of organised crime”.

Nevertheless, she stated when giving proof, Apple, Google and Samsung had averted saying why they might not implement the expertise.

“Their repeated pivots to answering questions on knowledge safety moderately than gadgets, and insistence that the telephones had been damaged down and bought for elements, with none proof to assist this assertion, was telling,” she stated.

“Expertise to discourage cellphone theft is offered, and we now have but to listen to a convincing cause why, with co-operation on all sides, the out there options should not be used to disincentivise cellphone theft and disrupt the market in stolen gadgets.”

Onwurah requested the house secretary if she would push the tech giants to implement cloud-based blocking and in addition pressed the minister to offer an information for the subsequent cellphone theft summit.

A summit occurred in February 2025 however a follow-up assembly deliberate for Could didn’t happen.

In June, Commander James Conway, the Met Police’s cellphone theft lead, advised MPs: “The substitute worth of these telephones – members of the general public and insurance coverage firms having to pay out to exchange them – we estimate at round £50 million final 12 months.”

Addressing Apple consultant Gary Davis later in the identical committee listening to, Conservative MP Equipment Malthouse stated: “The priority is that, truly, it feels to lots of people like you might be dragging your toes and that sitting behind this can be a very sturdy business incentive.

“The truth that £50m-worth of telephones are stolen in London yearly signifies that, if that stopped, £50m of gross sales can be depressed.”

“You’ll be able to detect all types of intelligent issues about my behaviour, my face and my fingerprint; but, for what appears to most individuals like a comparatively easy resolution to an endemic and important downside of crime in London and different capital cities, you might be saying that you’ve got been at it for 12 years and made no progress.”

Davis stated the accusation was “a little bit unfair” and rejected the declare that “we someway profit from our customers struggling the traumatic occasion of getting their cellphone stolen”.

He added that the corporate had invested in designing protections for telephones together with stolen machine safety and a ‘discover my iPhone’ device.

In written evidence to the committee, Apple stated it had considerations in regards to the “wider privateness and safety implications” of blocking stolen gadgets from accessing its companies however added that it was “now contemplating how IMEI-blocking might be enacted”.

Google argued its present protections supplied a “sturdy resolution” and Samsung said it had “devoted appreciable sources” to the difficulty.

House Workplace Minister Sarah Jones stated: “Cell phone theft is a disgraceful crime – each stolen machine robs somebody of their security and peace of thoughts.

She stated the federal government was placing extra police on the streets and giving them “sturdy powers” to sort out offenders however added that cell phone firms had a “essential position to play in stopping this”.