I never understood why the repair techs need my passcode to repair my iPhone (like replacing display or battery) and they suggest it as a first option unapologetically without even explaining privacy risks.
Indeed, there were some settings that needed to be set, to ”help” the new screen.
Having said that — I’ve previously documented a case (well over 10 years ago) where I caught a local PC repair company who used their access to a machine of mine they were repairing - to quickly scan through the thumbnails of our personal photos, and look closer at any image which showed any flesh.
People expect to be trusted but don’t act in a trustworthy manner.
I don’t think I ever had a single person say no to the pin but we did have plenty of people wipe the device before they brought it in.
Now I think this is what I would do if I need to send any electronic device for repairs.
All my data is backed up to cloud, yes setting it up again is a chore but it's better than risking my data with some unknown contractor.
How is that less worrisome? Your data is living in someone else's storage, waiting to be compromised.
My phone is not backed up. There's also nothing on it that I could not stand to lose.
That doesn’t necessarily help with people sending in devices with special nostalgia for the physical hardware, such as a signature. Though whether those sorts of issues were from not paying attention to notes attached to the account or outright theft has rarely been clear.