Find my iphone can be cheated?

yalag said:

I recently lost my ipad and was hoping that find my iphone will be able to retrieve it. But I just realized, the thief could have easily went into settings and turn off "Find my iphone" in the icloud settings. And actually failing that, he could have also just reformatted the ipad.

So my question really is, how useful is find my iphone?

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If you have a password on your iPad, it is very useful. But is useless if they have access.

yalag said:

True, I did not have a password. But still, to my second point they should still be able to format it by connecting it to iTunes without knowing my password, no?

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Yes.

'Find my iPhone' is a loss-recovery tool, not a theft-recovery tool (unless you're fast and/or they're stupid).

Its not a full proof theft recovery lojack style system.
Its used just to find misplaced idevices and offcourse if the person that found it is willing to return it.
Even if there's a passcode all they need to do is restore it and find my iphone is gone.
So dont think of it as a security system but as a help to locate that's all.

Find My iPhone is not designed to be used for stolen iPhones/iPads/and Macs. It is meant to be used for when and if you either leave it at work, can't find it under your cushions, and to wipe/lock it just in case you do leave it at a place where someone can and will steal it. The wipe feature is simply to protect you from someone going in and e-mailing all your contacts, ordering stuff under your Apple ID, and snooping around.

Huh

So because YOU didn't put in a password to prevent someone from entering your system, YOU actually then think you found a flaw to find my iphone.

OK, I've stopped laughing I can type again.

So if you leave you car OPEN with the keys in it, the flaw is with the manufacturer of the car. How about door open to your house the problem is the door/lock maker?

Sorry find my phone works as designed.