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San Francisco district attorney calls on Apple to enable Activation Lock by default on all iPhones

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When Apple debuted iOS 7 earlier this year, one of the many new features covered at the keynote event was Activation Lock. The feature is an addition to the existing Find My iPhone system that helps recover lost or stolen iOS devices. While Find My iPhone mainly focuses on locating tracking the missing device on a map, Activation Lock is designed to keep thieves from using stolen phones.

George Gascón, San Francisco district attorney, has called on Apple to enable this feature by default, requiring users to opt-out of the service rather than opting in. Gascón cites a recent survey of 313 San Franciscans which revealed that 79% of responding iPhone users had enabled Find My iPhone and Activation Lock.

Despite the ridiculously tiny sample size and geographical bias toward a tech-savvy citizenry, Gascón says that this number is high enough to indicate that most users want the feature enabled, and Apple should automatically enable it on all new devices.

The survey was being conducted as part of a revitalized effort to create a carrier “kill switch” that would allow stolen phones to be remotely disabled by the carrier, even if they have been restored to factory settings. Carriers were not too pleased with the idea when it first came up several years ago, and it appears attitudes have not changed much following these recent developments.

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Comments

  1. Tyler Loch (@TylerLoch) - 10 years ago

    Some sort of credentials are required to disengage Activation Lock, and it would be in poor taste to force every iPhone to be tied to an iCloud/iTunes account.

  2. ronie678 - 10 years ago

    Reblogged this on Ronak's Apple iNews.

  3. jeff krypto - 10 years ago

    people(criminals,addicts,desperate) see an iphone as a way of making money. my phone was stolen from my work place while my back was turned and I was out of line of site. If the person who is so desperate for money they will do anything to get their next fix or payday for their bills that an iphone will become their payday then why not take that away from them and make the iphone less of a target?

  4. Tallest Skil - 10 years ago

    Apple’s response: “Screw you; no.”

  5. From a business perspective you can remove Activation Lock as long as you can document proof of purchase. Takes 24 hours to process the request. Contact Apple Enterprise support.

  6. Donald Kagan - 10 years ago

    I think we should be doing everything we can to totally eliminate personal responsibility. By all means they should ship locked, I have long advocated for a surgically implanted tether in order to prevent all possibility of loss and Apple’s head-office has recently been reviewing different options to implement my plan. Ideally all citizens will be obligated to purchase an iphone in order to ensure their ability to access EMS and loved ones at all times.

  7. standardpull - 10 years ago

    My brand new iPhone 3GS was stolen a few years back. I picked up my daughter at school and left phone in the car. There were a lot of kids around, but I never lost sight of the car. But clearly someone was very bold and lifted
    it in plain sight. I got back to my car with my daughter and it was gone.

    I filed a police report but nothing ever happened. They didn’t see anything in the security videos. Two months later it turned up deep under the seat of my car.

  8. Melanie Marat - 10 years ago

    you can bypass your iPhone 4 or iPhone 5 with this page http://allforiphone.ucoz.net/index/how_to_bypass_icloud_activation_screen_lock_iphone_5s_5c_5_4s_4/0-4 .Good luck i use my iPhone thanks to this page