It’s common knowledge that Google and Apple can remotely remove apps from their mobile operating systems, and it has now been confirmed that Google has used its kill switch on two apps that infringed on its terms of service.

Google admits that most people who downloaded the apps had already deleted them and that this was just a cleanup operation. Apparently users will get a notification sent to them when an app is removed, but it’s still a bit scary to think that your apps might suddenly disappear.

There’s always the chance that someone may steal your laptop and enjoy a nice relaxing day of browsing through your digital life. The very idea sucks, but Ericsson and Intel are developing a solution. The two companies are working on a remote kill switch for laptops.

Outfitted with both HSPA and GPS, the laptop can be SMS disabled and also globally located if stolen. A disabled laptop cannot be booted while third party software can handle aspects of extra data encryption. A thief with some tech know-how may be able to get around some or all of these measures, but at least this would be a deterrent to theft.