My phone that cost more than Rs 25,000 was stolen. The police didn’t seem interested in filing an FIR. I have no hope of recovering my phone or the information on it.
The helplessness after having a phone stolen and finding out that no one, not even the police, can help, is a something all of us who have lost their phones have felt.
Our phones are with us all the time, containing large amounts of personal data, and the idea of someone else having access to such information is alarming.
A petition filed on Change.org has asked for the government’s intervention in such cases.
The petition, filed by a man whose phone was stolen, asks for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to block stolen phones using the International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI) Code, which is the phone’s identity number, so that stolen phones are rendered useless to thieves.
India should have a system where stolen phones can be blocked. If thieves cannot use or sell phones, there will be less instances of phone theft.Excerpt from the petition
In the US, phones are blocked through service providers, and the Philippines currently has a system where the government directly blocks stolen phones using the IMEI code. The petition requests for such a system, saying:
It’s a simple enough request that TRAI can implement easily. Owners can send an SMS request with a specific code to block their stolen phones, preventing thieves from using the phone.
The petition, which was started a month ago with a single signature, has got over 70,000 signatures in a month.
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