Updates from Google to combat phone theft welcomed by Mayor
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has welcomed the introduction of new updates to technology that will enhance security for Android phones and provide better protection for users, as part of work to ‘design out’ mobile phone crime in the capital and beyond.
The Mayor visited Google’s London offices to hear about new state-of-the-art AI technology that will make Android mobile phones less attractive to thieves and protect users and their data. The new enhanced security includes automatically locking the screen if the phone is snatched and allowing remote locking of a stolen device.
These updates are part of an ongoing partnership to ‘design out’ mobile phone robbery, and follow the Mayor and Met Commissioner’s landmark meeting with world-leading mobile phone companies at City Hall in October last year, where Sadiq called on them to find the most effective deterrents to combat phone theft.
New figures show that mobile phone crime is driving the rise in robberies and thefts in the capital with 33 per cent of all robberies last year involving a phone being stolen – equating to more than 11,800 offences. And 69 per cent of all thefts in London last year related to mobile phones.
The Met is spearheading dedicated and targeted police work to prevent these crimes but the criminal demand for high-value mobile phones continues to grow.
Today the Mayor has praised the changes introduced by Google which will enable Android device owners to hide sensitive apps behind a separate PIN-locked area. The new update will also use AI and sensors inside a device to identify when a thief has grabbed and fled with a user’s phone, locking the screen to prevent them accessing it or any data stored on it. The new Remote Lock feature will lock a device using just the phone number should it be lost or stolen, which will help users who cannot remember their Google credentials in the moments after a theft, but still need to secure their personal data.
The Mayor is urging Londoners to ensure they install the latest Android software updates available and activate these settings to ensure their device is best protected against thieves. The Mayor also continues to work alongside other phone companies, including Apple who have taken action with the new iOS 18 software update making it substantially harder for iPhones to be broken up for parts in the UK and internationally.
Sadiq will continue to work with the major phone companies to explore if all phones can be disabled following a theft, whether here in the UK or elsewhere in the world.
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