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About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

support.apple.com

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Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#11

Post by JoshTko »

dylan604 wrote: post #5
baicunko wrote: post #2

This took quite a while to get ready but I do believe it prevents 99.9% of the theft cases mentioned. I am downloading it right now.

Even if it prevents reselling the phone, it doesn't prevent the phone from being stolen. It would be a dumb criminal to leave you your phone to allow you to immediately call the police if you've been mugged. Just take the phone, trash it literally placing it in a bin or destroying it or both. At the end of the day, you still don't have the phone whether the thief profits from it or not. All this will do is prevent cr…

This would discourage thieves from targeting iPhones long term so there is a definite network benefit.

Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#12

Post by metadat »

ghostpepper wrote: post #7
dylan604 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it prevents reselling the phone, it doesn't prevent the phone from being stolen. It would be a dumb criminal to leave you your phone to allow you to immediately call the police if you've been mugged. Just take the phone, trash it literally placing it in a bin or destroying it or both. At the end of the day, you still don't have the phone whether the thief profits from it or not. All this will do is prevent cr…

Why would a criminal steal your phone if they knew they couldn't sell it?

They can still part it out, e.g. at least the screen and frame.

With that said, this will definitely make it more difficult and less profitable per unit of effort.

Edit: @google234123 +1 to that!

Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#13

Post by hbn »

bgentry wrote: post #8
dylan604 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it prevents reselling the phone, it doesn't prevent the phone from being stolen. It would be a dumb criminal to leave you your phone to allow you to immediately call the police if you've been mugged. Just take the phone, trash it literally placing it in a bin or destroying it or both. At the end of the day, you still don't have the phone whether the thief profits from it or not. All this will do is prevent cr…

This feature is not really about protecting your device from being stolen. It's about protecting your iCloud account and everything on your device from being compromised when somebody has stolen your device and also has your phone's passcode. It's an attempt to resolve the fairly widespread iPhone / iCloud social engineering takeover attacks that were documented in great detail by Joanna Stern last year: https://www.…

> This feature is not really about protecting your device from being stolen.

Once a thief has stolen his 10th iPhone that he can't do anything with, he'll probably be less likely to bother stealing iPhones. If anything it's a liability since it can be tracked as long as it still has some battery.

Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#14

Post by paxys »

dylan604 wrote: post #5
baicunko wrote: post #2

This took quite a while to get ready but I do believe it prevents 99.9% of the theft cases mentioned. I am downloading it right now.

Even if it prevents reselling the phone, it doesn't prevent the phone from being stolen. It would be a dumb criminal to leave you your phone to allow you to immediately call the police if you've been mugged. Just take the phone, trash it literally placing it in a bin or destroying it or both. At the end of the day, you still don't have the phone whether the thief profits from it or not. All this will do is prevent cr…

The point of it is to protect your data, not the phone itself.

Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#15

Post by gnicholas »

varenc wrote: post #6
gnicholas wrote: post #4

Is there a website that has a list of the steps you should take if your phone is stolen? My first instinct would be to use someone else's phone to google "what to do if your iPhone is stolen". But I wouldn't know how to determine if the instructions I was seeing were incomplete, or outdated. Is there a trusted, frequently-updated site that we can easily remember and plug into our friends' phone if and when this terri…

This Apple support page has a section on " If your iPhone or iPad is lost permanently or was stolen " : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201472

Very cool, thanks. I notice it doesn’t mention anything about changing bank passwords or the like. Might that be necessary, depending on how long it’s been out of your control? That is, if someone swipes your phone and was able to peak at your password (as a recent WSJ series focused on), you would probably need to take more dramatic steps if you didn’t realize it was gone immediately. Should I be making a list of the apps on my phone that have sensitive information and can be accessed without FaceID?

I wish it were possible to designate an app to require FaceID or both my device password and my Apple ID password (or some other second authentication). Does this new updates fix this issue entirely? I feel like not because until I mark the phone stolen it doesn’t know to lock the holder of the phone out of my apps using just my device password.

Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#16

Post by pc86 »

gnicholas wrote: post #15
varenc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Apple support page has a section on " If your iPhone or iPad is lost permanently or was stolen " : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201472

Very cool, thanks. I notice it doesn’t mention anything about changing bank passwords or the like. Might that be necessary, depending on how long it’s been out of your control? That is, if someone swipes your phone and was able to peak at your password (as a recent WSJ series focused on), you would probably need to take more dramatic steps if you didn’t realize it was gone immediately. Should I be making a list of th…

If something like a phone is stolen it's probably safe just to change everything. The inconvenience of having to go through and change your important passwords manually (including your manager's master password of course) is relatively minor compared to your financial accounts getting breached.

Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#17

Post by bertil »

gnicholas wrote: post #15
varenc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Apple support page has a section on " If your iPhone or iPad is lost permanently or was stolen " : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201472

Very cool, thanks. I notice it doesn’t mention anything about changing bank passwords or the like. Might that be necessary, depending on how long it’s been out of your control? That is, if someone swipes your phone and was able to peak at your password (as a recent WSJ series focused on), you would probably need to take more dramatic steps if you didn’t realize it was gone immediately. Should I be making a list of th…

> I wish it were possible to designate an app to require FaceID

Developers can require that. Several apps I use do.

Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#18

Post by pc86 »

NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #10
gnicholas wrote: post #4

Is there a website that has a list of the steps you should take if your phone is stolen? My first instinct would be to use someone else's phone to google "what to do if your iPhone is stolen". But I wouldn't know how to determine if the instructions I was seeing were incomplete, or outdated. Is there a trusted, frequently-updated site that we can easily remember and plug into our friends' phone if and when this terri…

I have an Android phone, and a few months ago I left it behind in a Waymo autonomous vehicle. Awhile ago, I added the "Find My Device" site to my bookmarks and I'd tested it out a few times. So I started there. And I also used Google Voice to place a voice call, so when it didn't ring in my home, I knew it wasn't here. The Waymo passenger answered and there was much giggling. She kept saying she didn't know what to d…

> She offered to leave the phone in a pharmacy across town! I don't know how that would've helped.

Well for one, the pharmacy isn't moving.

Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#19

Post by someotherperson »

hbn wrote: post #13
bgentry wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feature is not really about protecting your device from being stolen. It's about protecting your iCloud account and everything on your device from being compromised when somebody has stolen your device and also has your phone's passcode. It's an attempt to resolve the fairly widespread iPhone / iCloud social engineering takeover attacks that were documented in great detail by Joanna Stern last year: https://www.…

> This feature is not really about protecting your device from being stolen. Once a thief has stolen his 10th iPhone that he can't do anything with, he'll probably be less likely to bother stealing iPhones. If anything it's a liability since it can be tracked as long as it still has some battery.

> Once a thief has stolen his 10th iPhone that he can't do anything with, he'll probably be less likely to bother stealing iPhones. If anything it's a liability since it can be tracked as long as it still has some battery.

Theft isn't just for the whole device, it's also for parts. By making the part market so difficult they essentially create a black market for it in third world countries where just the phone's battery could be worth a day's wages.

Re: About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone

#20

Post by google234123 »

metadat wrote: post #12
ghostpepper wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a criminal steal your phone if they knew they couldn't sell it?

They can still part it out, e.g. at least the screen and frame. With that said, this will definitely make it more difficult and less profitable per unit of effort. Edit: @google234123 +1 to that!

Soon I hope apple with blacklist electronic parts from stolen devices based on their serial numbers
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