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Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

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Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#51

Post by crooked-v »

StillBored wrote: post #48
jessriedel wrote: post #32

Was there no other source for this story besides this piece of hyperbole? Everything is a "nightmare" and "chaos" with "victims" and phones sent to the "shredder". We shouldn't support this garbage writing.

The process for recovering a locked iphone is problematic if the user forgets both the iphone password and the icloud password (because it was only used once a year before). That happened to a family member recently, I guess they were using face id regularly and changed their pin at one point and by the time they needed it again couldn't remember it. The part that really pisses me off is the "10 strikes and we wipe y…

You have to specifically turn on the "Erase all data on this iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts" option for that to happen. If you do that without being very confident about remembering your passcode, it's your own dang fault.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#53

Post by nkrisc »

> “People don’t steal a phone to then go run and drop it off at their local recycling center,” he quips. And smartphone thefts have plummeted over the last several years, so stolen phones are becoming less of a problem in the first place.

And this excerpt links to this article: https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/DA-Gasc-n-says-SF-...

Which mentions:

> Smartphone robberies have plunged 50 percent in the past three years in San Francisco after they soared to epidemic heights and prompted a push for remote “kill switches” to become mandatory in the devices, District Attorney George Gascón announced Thursday.

So the article states that the Activation Lock isn't necessary because device thefts have plummeted. But they plummeted because of Activation Lock and similar features. That's circular reasoning if I ever saw it.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#54

Post by repler »

There’s a reason why the ‘98 Honda Civic and ‘97 Honda Accord are the most stolen cars to this day.

Anti-theft features largely work very well.

Removing the anti-theft features from very expensive phones is going to be a non-starter for the vast majority of people.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#55

Post by zozbot234 »

skywhopper wrote: post #44
zozbot234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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." Apple (and Google, with the Android equivalent) could do this easily, couldn't they? Wouldn't this also be useful for the case of devices that are lost and found, so that they can be returned to the owner?

This is already easy to do using Find My Devices in iCloud. You can have the devices put up any message you want.

The owner can arrange for this, but not whoever finds the device. It would be nice to make this possible - perhaps with some appropriate policy around it, so that the feature can't be abused.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#56

Post by aroch »

retrac wrote: post #34
filleduchaos wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the (valid if cynical) implication is that a large number of those "trashed and recycled" phones were trashed and recycled by people who are...not the owners.

Perhaps. Thieves don't strike me as the type to be more eco-conscious than average, though. I'm betting they're mostly just thrown out. Many people can't be bothered with the hassle of trying to sell a used device.

They "recycle" them by going to Walmart and putting them into a recycling kiosk like [1] and get cash/gift cards instantly. They're not recycling so much as fencing....

[1]: https://us.ecoatm.com

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#57

Post by pflats »

StillBored wrote: post #48
jessriedel wrote: post #32

Was there no other source for this story besides this piece of hyperbole? Everything is a "nightmare" and "chaos" with "victims" and phones sent to the "shredder". We shouldn't support this garbage writing.

The process for recovering a locked iphone is problematic if the user forgets both the iphone password and the icloud password (because it was only used once a year before). That happened to a family member recently, I guess they were using face id regularly and changed their pin at one point and by the time they needed it again couldn't remember it. The part that really pisses me off is the "10 strikes and we wipe y…

> The part that really pisses me off is the "10 strikes and we wipe your phone bit". That happened to me too on an infrequently used iphone last year.

This is an optional setting, and I'm relatively certain it used to be off by default. I think my newest iPhone specifically prompted me about it during setup.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#58

Post by faitswulff »

StillBored wrote: post #49
faitswulff wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users can already unlock devices themselves over iCloud, correct? What if it just pinged the previous owner to ask if it was legitimate?

The problem is that a certain percentage of users set-up the icloud account with a password, then promptly forget it exists until they need it. Which tends to be when they have also forgotten their pin, because the pin is now similar to the icloud password and not required for every unlock.

Still, it would allow for some devices to be properly recycled and resold while maintaining security for the rest.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#59

Post by saagarjha »

faitswulff wrote: post #37

I feel like most posters here aren't reading the full article, specifically this paragraph: > When asked what could be done, Schindler suggests Apple implement a bypass that would allow certified recyclers and refurbishers to unlock donated devices if they’re not reported lost or stolen. And Shindler says 99% of the locked devices his facility receives aren’t lost or stolen. “People don’t steal a phone to then go run…

I don't trust Apple refurbishers and recyclers to not sell their services to third parties. We know they were already doing this for firmware unlocks.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#60

Post by threeseed »

retrac wrote: post #34
filleduchaos wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the (valid if cynical) implication is that a large number of those "trashed and recycled" phones were trashed and recycled by people who are...not the owners.

Perhaps. Thieves don't strike me as the type to be more eco-conscious than average, though. I'm betting they're mostly just thrown out. Many people can't be bothered with the hassle of trying to sell a used device.

Not the thieves themselves but buyers.

Used to be very common for someone to buy an iPhone on eBay, realise it was activation locked and then see comments everywhere on how to remove it.

My guess is many of those people would end up just throwing the phone away.

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