The government of Brazil has introduced a program called Celular Seguro (Safe Cell Phone) in a move to minimize cell phone theft. The anti-theft system comes amidst the rising cases of phones being robbed or stolen in large cities.
Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security, developed this project to reduce phone theft to its bare minimum. It’s a very user-friendly program too. All that users have to do is register their phone cell number first. In option, they can also save the number of a person of trust who would be fully authorized to manage notifications from their phones.
Read next: The new SIM rule commences in India, Find out all new changes
How does the Safe Cell Phone program work in Brazil?
So basically, when someone’s phone gets stolen, the user activates a warning button on the app which sends a signal to the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel). The authority then renders the device inoperable meaning that the cell phone won’t connect to any network and the user will lose the ability to make phone calls and messages. The phenomenon when a cell phone can’t connect to a network is called network-locking in telecommunication. While this was possible before this, now, it’s just straightforward. The victims will can quickly proceed to block unauthorized access to their devices after they are stolen.
The other brighter aspect of this program is that this anti-theft system also sends a notification to the bank to block the mobile application. It rules out any possibility of thieves to hack the app. The banks have promised to act within 10 to 30 minutes to block the app after receiving the notification of a phone’s theft.
The government hopes that more service providers join the project over time. The plan ahead is not just to block cell phones but SIM cards so that thieves can’t receive an SMS to recover passwords. So far, apps such as iFood, and Mercado Livre have expressed intention to come aboard this project. Also read: The Future of Communication: Exploring the Power of RCS Messaging
Ricardo Cappelli, the executive secretary of the ministry says that the safe cell phone app has two purposes- to accelerate help the victims of stolen mobile phones and to ask thieves whether their action was truly worth it. We are building an emergency button, so that when the person activates it, operations are quickly blocked and the person can reorganize more calmly, without the agony of having to stop their life to make 300 calls. Our goal is to transform the stolen device into a useless piece of metal,” he said at a press conference.
The government said that the app has been the result of six months of work with the motif to offer the most direct and feasible solution. Brazil suffers from rampant cases of mobile robberies. In 203 alone, 999,2223 cell phones were stolen as per the Public Security Yearbook which represents a rise of 16% from 2021. And that’s just the official records. On a daily basis, the owners may face far more horrid situations.