Several bills have been proposed on the state and national levels to mandate a remote "kill switch" on all cell phones sold in the US. The purpose of the bill is to prevent cell phone theft by allowing users to permanently disable stolen cell phones.
On the surface, this seems like a great idea: what can go wrong? A government mandated solution has many issues:
Since the feature is one that is mandated by the government, we will likely see some poor implementations of it by some manufactures. A poor implementation could result in accidental bricking or even exploitation. This has happened in the past: a Gizmodo writer had his iPhone and macBook remotely wiped by a hacker.
Given recent revelations about our Government's actions in the technology security field, I also worry about the the power of this legislation. What prevents the government from mandating the bricking of would-be protester's phones, for example? That may sound ludicrous, but its not. In 2011, Bay Area Rapid Transport Authority of San Francisco shut off its subway's cell phone transmitters to prevent a protest, leaving all passengers without cell signal. Imagine what can be done with a cell phone kill switch.
Currently there are free and built in solutions that offer similar functionality to the proposed "kill switch." Apple allows users to deactivate stolen devices in a way that persists even through a reset, and the free Android app TrustGo allows users to track and lock stolen devices.
If these bills were to pass, language must be added to ensure that the kill-switch has an opt-out that allows the user to completely disable the functionality. Why give a hacker or the government the chance to brick your phone?
