Crime data from New York City show iPhone ’kill switch’ cut crimes against users

New crime data show Apple’s addition of a "kill switch" to its iPhones last September has sharply reduced robberies and thefts, authorities said Thursday. Their report from a year-old initiative called "Secure Our Smartphones" said Google and Microsoft will incorporate a kill switch into the next version of their operating systems on smartphones. The three systems — Android, iOS, and Windows Phone — are used in 97 percent of smartphones in the U.S. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, part of the initiative, said the data show crimes meanwhile surged against people carrying phones without switches intended to make them useless to thieves.