California lawmakers have passed a updated version of the state’s cell phone kill switch bill, a measure that requires mobile device manufacturers to build remote cutoffs into the hardware so a phone can be disabled if lost or stolen.
This is the second time the measure has come before the California State Senate. It was rejected last month, two votes away from becoming law.
Government officials suspected the wireless industry didn’t want to lose out on business from insurance groups that covered phone theft, CNET reported in April.
The bill looks a bit different now, and it passed 26-8 on Thursday.
San Francisco senator Mark Leno amended the bill to cut manufacturers a bit more slack; they would get six more months of grace period before kill switch requirements go into effect in July 2015. The rules wouldn't apply to tablets.
Similar legislation is underway in New York, Minnesota and Illinois, and Apple, Google and a handful of other smartphone manufacturers agreed to add a kill switch solution to their handsets in July 2015.