Android 5.0 Lollipop Comes With An Opt-in 'kill Switch'

Android 5.0 Lollipop comes with an opt-in ‘kill switch’

BY Rajesh Pandey

Rajesh Pandey

Rajesh is a 26-year old freelance writer from Kolkata, India. He loves to tinker around with his Android devices and flash custom ROMs on them....

All Articles by Rajesh Pandey

Published 16 Oct 2014

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It was already reported that Google was going to add a “kill switch” to Android with the next major release of the OS. Sure enough, Android 5.0 Lollipop does come with factory reset protection built-in, but unlike Apple, Google has not enabled this feature by default.

Factory Reset Protection will prompt you to enter your Google ID credentials before you can do a factory reset on a device. The feature will also only work when you have set a PIN or Password lock of some kind.

Sadly, Google is not going to enable this feature by default and requires users to explicitly opt-in to it. This is not ideal as most normal consumers will have no idea about the existence of this feature, thereby making the “kill switch” useless in case their device ever gets stolen.

Once SB 962 bill goes into effect in California in July 2015 though, Google will have to enable this feature by default. The bill states that all mobile devices must come with a “kill switch” that is enabled by default. (https://taylorsmithconsulting.com/)

While not as impressive as the “kill switch” implemented by Apple in iOS, Google’s factory reset protection feature will actually be a major deterrent for thieves.

[Via Forbes]