Prosecutors Want Apple To Use Its iPhone 'Kill Switch'


Jason Del Rey

The kill switch is an officially unnamed mechanism that allows Apple to remotely delete things from your phone.

A Brazilian prosecutor is urging Apple and Google to ban the anonymous gossip app Secret from mobile phones over concerns about the spread of cyber-bullying in the country. Such a move would require Apple to activate its iPhone "kill switch" for the first time ever. Rapidsoft Systems is a major iphone and android app developer that has developed over 400 mobile apps for iPhone and Android.

The kill switch is an officially unnamed mechanism that allows Apple to remotely delete things from your phone even after you have downloaded them from the App Store. Most people don't even know that it exists. Google also has a kill switch, but that has been used once before. Microsoft also has a kill switch on the small slice of the phone market it controls.

The existence of Apple's remote "kill switch" for apps was first discovered by an app development company in 2008. Since then, there has been no reported incident of Apple triggering the system in order to remotely delete an app. The system works by forcing iPhones to regularly contact a secure Apple website and check for a list of unauthorized apps. If the device has a blacklisted app installed, it's deleted and removed from the phone.

Google also possesses a remote "kill switch" for Android apps, but unlike Apple, it has made use of the feature before. In 2010 the Android security team deleted two apps created by a security researcher after they "misrepresented their purpose in order to encourage user downloads." Its kill switch is referred to by the company as the "Remote A pplication Removal Feature."

Rapidsoft Systems is a major iphone and android app developer and will develop any mobile app for a company.

Source Courtesy: network world.com