Tracking Lost Smartphones Prompts Safety Concerns Monica Almeida - The New York Times
go to original May 8, 2014

With smartphone theft rampant, apps like Find My iPhone offer a new option for those desperate to recover their devices, allowing victims to act when the police will not.

But the emergence of this kind of do-it-yourself justice — an unintended result of the proliferation of GPS tracking apps — has stirred worries among law enforcement officials that people are putting themselves in danger, taking disproportionate risks for the sake of an easily replaced item.

“This is a new phenomenon — it’s not simply running after the person to grab the phone,” said George Gascón, the San Francisco district attorney and a former police chief. “It opens up the opportunity for people to take the law into their own hands, and they can get themselves into really deep water if they go to a location where they shouldn’t go.”

“Some have been successful,” Gascón said. “Others have gotten hurt.”

Smartphones have become irresistibly delectable morsels for thieves. More than 3 million were stolen last year, according to a survey by Consumer Reports.

Read the rest at The Boston Globe

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