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Comment by thefz | Hacker News Reader

Apple boasts great device security, I refuse to believe that in 2023 it isn't enough to just wipe the storage encryption key. Device will still be usable and customer data protected. Oh well, the problem would be even less severe if these devices had removable storage. This is yet another anti consumer and anti environment greedy move from a company that markets lock-in practices as features.

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If you're okay with your stolen device being reused as long as they can't access your data, you can do that, click the "Erase" button on the Find My app.

And for the cases treated in the article, where there's no person to erase such data in the first place? Rare earth paperweights?

Process should be improved at those companies and/or the recycling firms should refuse Apple products that are still activation locked. It will slow down process; but, it is an appropriate route.

As for dead people, a death certificate + 40 days (or a longer waiting period) should be sufficient, imo.

For dead people there's this whole system: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212360 + https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208510

I think the point is not (just) data protection, but also to discourage theft by making them useless if stolen.

Apple is doing the right thing here.

This might be avoided if our justice system was willing and able to go after these thieves, despite their relatively low-value crimes.

So again, it's not the mega corporation that is greedy, it's the poor. Wow!

It's no "the poor" its the thieves. Are you insinuating that all poor people are thieves?

No. But most thieves steal because of their financial situation, I would guess.

Most theives are poor, but most crime is committed by a very small number of people who are opportunitiest. Remove the oppertunity and you remove the criminal.

Just to make devices less desirebale for thieves. And it is quite valid point.

And is this preventing theft in what measure? Data at hand?

I'm having trouble parsing what you mean here. Could you elaborate further or use different words?

Thanks!

Does any data exists that can prove such countermeasure is lowering the rate of theft for Apple devices only, or is it just speculation?

Yes: https://www.zdnet.com/article/fcc-report-apple-iphone-activa...

Lots of data. Police departments in San Francisco, New York and London saw pronounced drops in iPhone theft rates shortly after Activation Lock was introduced. https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/1...

Thieves have taken to threatening the people they stole from because they simply aren’t able to bypass the activation lock: https://appleinsider.com/inside/iphone/tips/do-not-remove-ic...

While a device could be scrapped and sold for parts, many components in the iPhone authenticate with each other, which makes it even more challenging to usefully sell the parts. The same authentication has been criticized as obstructing legitimate device repairs, although Apple has been (dragged into) better supporting self-service repairs more recently.

The security is also in the fact that the stolen devices are almost worthless becoming well known.

Yeah, the security of their profit.

No, security on the fact that when thieves break into my office, they leave the Apple computers because they know they are just dead weight with zero resale value.

They grab all of the other hardware though, the ones with no protections.

I'm having a hard time believing that these measures are by any means preventing theft. The scene with a thief going "oh no, it's an Apple device! I am not gonna steal it" is almost comical.

Devices will be stolen anyway and scrapped/dropped instead.

PSA: Enable Bitlocker and LUKS on your devices, folks. Your device is 100% going to be targeted now.

And then you find the place the thief dropped it at, via Find My?

I have second-hand knowledge of a situation where a friend's office was broken into, the thieves left all Apple computers but grabbed monitors and PCs.

The thieves weren't random crackheads breaking in on a whim though, they specifically knew what the expensive stuff looked like (colour calibrated displays, drawing tablets) and left the cheap and impossible to resell stuff alone.

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