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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced today that Apple's Activation Lock feature in iOS 7 has led to a "significant" reduction of iPhone-related theft in New York, London, and San Francisco, reports The New York Times.

ios7_activation_lock.jpg
Measuring crime after Apple introduced Activation Lock alongside iOS 7 last Fall, police officers in San Francisco said that iPhone robberies in the city fell 38 percent, with London experiencing a 24 percent drop. Meanwhile, the New York Police Department said that iPhone robberies dropped 19 percent, while grand larcenies including the device dropped 29 percent in the first five months of 2014 compared to the same time period last year.
"The introduction of kill switches has clearly had an effect on the conduct of smartphone thieves," Mr. Schneiderman said in an interview. "If these can be canceled like the equivalent of canceling a credit card, these are going to be the equivalent of stealing a paperweight."
Apple's Activation Lock feature, which prevents stolen phones from being reactivated without an iCloud password, has received praise from various groups since its inclusion in iOS 7. Schneiderman, along with San Francisco attorney George Gascón, spearheaded smartphone anti-theft efforts last year and called Apple's Activation Lock the "world's first attempt to implement a technological solution to the global smartphone theft epidemic."

Apple also entered a voluntary agreement with a number of other smartphone makers in April to include anti-theft technology on all smartphones going on sale after July 2015. Under that agreement, every phone sold would have capabilities allowing users to remotely wipe data and to prevent reactivation without the owner's permission. It is likely that Apple's Activation Lock and Find My iPhone features already satisfy the requirements of the agreement.

Article Link: iOS 7's Activation Lock Feature Helping Reduce iPhone Theft in Three Major Cities
 

Fzang

macrumors 65816
Jun 15, 2013
1,314
1,081
i don't get it. If my iphone is lost or stolen what happen to it?

Probably nothing. Thieves or other people can't use it unless they have your Apple ID credentials.

Could probably strip it for spare parts, but I don't think that's a booming business model, seeing as replacement parts are actually really cheap compared to a fully assembled and functional iPhone.

So, yeah. Probably nothing.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,625
6,924
Modus operandi will soon change……...

Is a good step forward.
I’m wondering what those that relieve people of iPhones will think of next.

Back in the days when car theft was easy you’d wake up in the morning to find your driveway empty. Thieves now have to break into your house to get the keys which is potentially more worrying!!!!
 

fallenjt

macrumors 6502a
Jul 3, 2013
519
43
I wish iOS had an option to enter the passcode to turn off the phone. Now, thieves can't turn off the device and just wait for "Find My iPhone" to track them down.
 

moldy lunchbox

macrumors 6502a
Sep 9, 2010
777
340
Sunny California
I wish iOS had an option to enter the passcode to turn off the phone. Now, thieves can't turn off the device and just wait for "Find My iPhone" to track them down.

That would actually be really smart considering you can't take out the battery. Atleast, not relatively easily...might submit this idea to Apple.
 

Fzang

macrumors 65816
Jun 15, 2013
1,314
1,081
The thieves will just toss it in water.

...Which would kind of invalidate the point in stealing a phone? Might as well just grab it out of people's hand and smash it to the ground, on the street.

Or the thieves could just hide it in metal/concrete that would block all signal or, if your phone is on AT&T's network, the thieves would just kick back and laugh.

This is great, but what ever happened with those hackers who claimed they could unlock iPhones locked by Activation Lock and that they were unlocking thousands of stolen devices?

These people almost deserved to have their phones hacked though.
 

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
I wish iOS had an option to enter the passcode to turn off the phone. Now, thieves can't turn off the device and just wait for "Find My iPhone" to track them down.

Or they could use Control Center to turn Airplane Mode on from the lock screen.

That would actually be really smart considering you can't take out the battery. Atleast, not relatively easily...might submit this idea to Apple.

that's actually pretty smart. amazing.

It's not all that smart (it's been thought of many times before and dismissed for a range of reasons) and it would almost certainly be illegal in some places. For safety reasons, you need to be able to turn off a device which contains radios without requiring a password.
 

Corrode

macrumors 65816
Dec 26, 2008
1,003
2,297
Calgary, AB
Glad to hear it's having a positive impact. The further word spreads, the less theft will be a problem.

Now they just gotta remove airplane mode from control centre.
 

unixphone

macrumors regular
Sep 25, 2008
133
4
I wish iOS had an option to enter the passcode to turn off the phone. Now, thieves can't turn off the device and just wait for "Find My iPhone" to track them down.

lol, what if i do not know my wife's passcode and i am carrying her phone in a flight?
 

Fzang

macrumors 65816
Jun 15, 2013
1,314
1,081
lol, what if i do not know my wife's passcode and i am carrying her phone in a flight?

Then you're not carrying her phone in a flight, but on the long distance bus. Sorry pal, rules are rules.
 

PocketSand11

macrumors 6502a
Jun 12, 2014
688
1
~/
These people almost deserved to have their phones hacked though.

The hackers or the victims? I don't see why the victims deserve that. The hackers deserved to have their phones hacked, and much worse things...

----------

...Which would kind of invalidate the point in stealing a phone? Might as well just grab it out of people's hand and smash it to the ground, on the street.

Activation Lock invalidates the point of stealing the phone anyway. There's nothing to be done with a locked iPhone. The only reason to disable the power button would be to increase the chances of successfully tracking the thief, but the thief shouldn't have any reason to steal the phone in the first place.

Also, Find My iPhone is kinda wimpy. I want something that not only shows where it is but where it's been :cool: Boom, stolen iPhone trade center in China located. Yes, those exist. I know because my dad's iPhone was left in a taxi while it was running a tracking app in the background.

----------

Pointless, if thieves are still able to remove the sim card!!

Good point. The SIM card is easy to remove. They can't Activation Lock that. As another poster mentioned, there's also airplane mode in Control Center. I wouldn't want a passcode required to toggle that.
 
Last edited:

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
I wish iOS had an option to enter the passcode to turn off the phone. Now, thieves can't turn off the device and just wait for "Find My iPhone" to track them down.

theres still dfu mode though. its important to have in case some app freezes your phone for example. rare but it does happen
 

urtules

macrumors 6502
Jul 30, 2010
319
348
This is great, but what ever happened with those hackers who claimed they could unlock iPhones locked by Activation Lock and that they were unlocking thousands of stolen devices? https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/21/hackers-icloud-locking-compromise/

They were hacked because password reuse, it's not Apple software weakness. They used same password for multiple services or web sites. One of those services was hacked, so hackers got their passwords and just randomly guessed it.
 

MH01

Suspended
Feb 11, 2008
12,107
9,297
I wish iOS had an option to enter the passcode to turn off the phone. Now, thieves can't turn off the device and just wait for "Find My iPhone" to track them down.

A good idea but sadly the iphone battery is too short for that to be useful.
 

pauliaK

macrumors regular
Jan 16, 2012
142
56
Banff, AB
It's all nice and good. The part I dislike a lot is the inability to contact the owner of the device himself letting him know you got his phone and that you're willing to return it back.

I don't get it why apple ID account email is hidden and thus preventing you from emailing the person, other than that there is no other information available.

There could at least be an option or a button or something to send an email to the email address mentioned it can be a message that you send without actually seeing the recipients full email address, I mean an ability to provide your contact information so that the owner himself could contact you.

I would be more than happy to return the phone that I found a few days ago while traveling in Isreal, based on sim card inside it belongs to T-Mobile USA customer, I tired calling them, but no luck there, basically told me I can keep the phone, sim has been deactivated and they no record of the customer any longer.

I'll try calling Apple today, not expecting much but this is the last thing I can come up with.

So as you understand I'd be more than happy to return the phone back to the original owner but as of now all my efforts failed.

My point is, although it's good and welcome but the system is far from perfect and simple things as ability to simply let the owner know you got his phone would make quite a few unfortunate fellows happy as well as those who are doing their best to return the thing back life a lot easier.
 

darkpaw

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2007
684
1,307
London, England
This is awesome, but the activation lock is terrible for the second hand market and thus for the environment: http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/13/5...stops-thieves-but-has-unintended-consequences

Surely whoever receives the phone can just get in touch with the person who sent it to them, and get them to go through the steps here?
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2702

Either that, or they send it back asking them to remove the activation lock first. I don't see why someone would strip it and "melt down the motherboard".
 

foobarbaz

macrumors 6502a
Nov 29, 2007
859
1,911
I wish iOS had an option to enter the passcode to turn off the phone. Now, thieves can't turn off the device and just wait for "Find My iPhone" to track them down.

Do you also wish it had an option to enter the passcode to take out the SIM card?

I don't get it why apple ID account email is hidden and thus preventing you from emailing the person, other than that there is no other information available.

Because then theft would be replaced by blackmail as a lucrative crime. "Want your phone back? Send me some bitcoin and I'll mail it to you."
 
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