Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
1–10 of 144 posts
Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
#2Is there any proof this features reduces theft?
Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
#3If refurbishers were able to bypass the activation lock, what would the point of an activation lock be in the first place? This is perhaps one of the most important use cases, and it's a good sign that iFixit is complaining about it.
Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
#4They misspelled "steal"
Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
#5I'm entirely on Apple's side here.
It makes me very happy, as a consumer, knowing that if someone steals my phone, they can't get any value out of it. I don't want them to be able to sell it to a refurbisher for cash. And I don't want them to be able to do it with my laptop either.
And for refurbishers, it's not hard to make it an obvious required step for anyone looking to sell their own legitimately-owned phone. You just make it part of the instructions, and force them to check a couple boxes or popups acknowledging this before they can print the shipping label to send it in. And if the person doesn't follow instructions, you send it back to them.
The headline should really be "...will make it difficult to refurbish stolen Macs". Not a lot of sympathy.
Edit: in response to comments... yes these can still be sold for parts. But it still makes me feel better a thief will get $30, not $300, for my phone -- that's often enough of a difference between it being worth it or not. And if people are dropping these off for recycling, isn't the expectation that they're being used for parts at best anyways? If they're high enough value to actually be refurbished and resold, then it's worth putting the recycling bins behind cashiers or similar, who are trained to first verify they're unlocked before accepting them.
Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
#6If refurbishers were able to bypass the activation lock, what would the point of an activation lock be in the first place? This is perhaps one of the most important use cases, and it's a good sign that iFixit is complaining about it.
I'm sure there will be tons of "Legit" refurbishers that will unlock for a "donation".
Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
#7Is there any proof this features reduces theft?
There is a high correlation with activation lock becoming widespread and the decrease in phone theft. That's not proof, but...
Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
#8I'm entirely on Apple's side here. It makes me very happy, as a consumer, knowing that if someone steals my phone, they can't get any value out of it. I don't want them to be able to sell it to a refurbisher for cash. And I don't want them to be able to do it with my laptop either. And for refurbishers, it's not hard to make it an obvious required step for anyone looking to sell their own legitimately-owned phone. Yo…
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Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
#9Is there any proof this features reduces theft?
Yes.
"Comparing data in the six months before and after Apple released its anti-theft feature, police said iPhone robberies in San Francisco dropped 38 percent. In London, they fell 24 percent.
In New York City, robberies (which typically involve a threat of violence) of Apple products dropped 19 percent and grand larcenies of Apple products dropped 29 percent in the first five months of 2014, compared with the same time period from 2013, according to a report from the New York attorney general’s office, which included data from the New York City Police Department. By comparison, thefts of Samsung products increased 51 percent in the first five months of 2014, compared with the same period a year ago, the report said."
https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/antitheft-technolo...
Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs
#10I'm entirely on Apple's side here. It makes me very happy, as a consumer, knowing that if someone steals my phone, they can't get any value out of it. I don't want them to be able to sell it to a refurbisher for cash. And I don't want them to be able to do it with my laptop either. And for refurbishers, it's not hard to make it an obvious required step for anyone looking to sell their own legitimately-owned phone. Yo…
The article pretty well lays out why this doesn't work. We're talking about recyclers here. The people sending in these devices have literally thrown them away into a trash bin. There's no return address.
Creating a backdoor might not be the answer, but it sounds like there's no way to send a message to the phone's iCloud account saying "Hey I have your phone, it was recycled. Please remote-wipe and unlock it or give me an address to return it."