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The CTIA, an international organization made up of wireless carriers and suppliers, announced that it had finished building its database of stolen smartphones, part of its work with police chiefs from major cities to deter smartphone theft.

A frustration of law enforcement officials across the globe is that criminals that steal smartphones often ship them out of the country that they steal them in so that the devices can be resold and activated on wireless networks that have no record of the theft.

The database will register stolen devices so that they can be blacklisted by wireless carriers even when the device is outside of a particular carrier's network of subscribers. Carriers hope that by refusing to provide service to people using blacklisted devices they will be able to reduce the incentive for stealing smartphones.

Construction of the database began last year and the announcement of its implementation comes just before the November 30, 2013 deadline. (CTIA)

In other news...

In North America, Apple is offering consumers gift cards when they purchase select products either online or in stores during Black Friday. (Apple)

Tablets drove 14.8% of all online sales on Thanksgiving, according to IBM. (IBM)

More than 400 online retailers are offering special Black Friday deals to consumers that purchase goods with Bitcoin. (TechCrunch)

Samsung spends more on advertising than any company in the world, as a percentage of sales. (Reuters)

A data privacy lawsuit that four consumers brought against Apple has been dismissed by a California federal Judge. (Reuters)

CEO of Ford, Alan Mulally, is under consideration to replace Steve Ballmer at Microsoft, according to Bloomberg. (Bloomberg)

Apple sold only 8% more smartphones than Xiaomi in the third quarter. (Kantar Worldpanel)