Mobile vigilantism or geek justice?

Mobile vigilantism – the process "by which mobile phone owners are able bypass the cops and go straight to the source of the crime itself" – is on the rise, according to a recent report in PC Authority. Google and Kaspersky are among the main culprits. Apple and Kaspersky are just two of the bigger ...

Mobile vigilantism - the process "by which mobile phone owners are able bypass the cops and go straight to the source of the crime itself" - is on the rise, according to a recent report in PC Authority. Google and Kaspersky are among the main culprits.

Mobile vigilantism – the process "by which mobile phone owners are able bypass the cops and go straight to the source of the crime itself" – is on the rise, according to a recent report in PC Authority. Google and Kaspersky are among the main culprits.

Apple and Kaspersky are just two of the bigger vendors to offer a mobile tracking service that is intended to catch mobile thieves red handed in the act and some mobile owners are fighting back.

Some are calling the small revenge movement ‘geek justice’, but it could be better surmised as mobile vigilantism, the process by which mobile phone owners are able bypass the cops and go straight to the source of the crime itself.  

Results of the attacks are typically published across various internet forums and then picked up by news aggregators for comment and conjecture – much to the embarrassment of the thieves themselves and even the authorities, whom are usually too slow or ill equipped to react to minor thefts in many respects.

I am particularly impressed with Kaspersky’s SIM watch function:

A feature known as ‘SIM watch’ initially waits for bumbling thieves to change SIM cards and assume their regular lives again. The phone then alerts the original handset owner of the new stolen number, effectively giving the phone owner the upper hand.

Kaspersky also offers a remote SIM cleaning service that can erase the phones memory remotely, in case you’ve left sensitive emails on your phone.  This could be useful to business users, keen to prevent their data getting into the wrong hands.

Evgeny Morozov is a fellow at the Open Society Institute and sits on the board of OSI's Information Program. He writes the Net Effect blog on ForeignPolicy.com
Tag: Law

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