While Activation Lock has dramatically reduced iPhone thefts in some cities, with reductions as high as 50%, police data collated by the WSJ shows that the effect isn’t as great as expected in others. iPhone thefts fell by only 11% in Oakland, by 17% in Austin and actually increased by 32% in Seattle …
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who was a strong advocate for smartphone ‘kill switches,’ says that thieves may still think it worthwhile to take a chance as older iPhones are not locked by default, and there may still be a market for bricked phones for parts – or those who think they can defeat the lock. There have been eBay auctions where locked phones are sold, including one where the owner’s details were displayed!
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NYPD said last year that almost a fifth of all grand larcenies in NYC involved Apple products. In Seattle, Sgt. Verner O’Quin said that many people lack awareness of the risk of smartphone theft.
You wouldn’t walk around downtown Seattle with $500 in your hand, tripping over curbs, but you’ll carry a phone at 2 in the morning—maybe you’re drunk—and think no one’s tempted.
Apple introduced Activation Lock as part of iOS 7, and switched it on by default in iOS 8.
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” There have been eBay auctions where locked phones are sold, including one where the owner’s details were displayed!”
No one said you had to be smart to be a criminal! :)
Hell, lack of intelligence is usually a prerequisite
Part of it is that would be buyers don’t know what to look for and don’t completely understand iCloud locks or black listed ESN and what it really means. When looking to buy a used phone recently I saw plenty of people that got duped and was trying to sell the phone back on Craigslist as iCloud locked. A few weeks ago I had to explain to someone the entire process of checking the phone out when trying to buy a iPhone for her daughter.
Plus these thieves steal the phones for parts and certain buyers on Craigslist will buy these phones on the cheap.
You can’t really stop the parts situation but if a phone was iCloud locked or has a bad ESN maybe the phone needs to flash these messages on the display and alarm when the phone turns on.
Yes, I’d agree more consumer education is needed. 9to5 readers know what it means, but the average person in the street probably doesn’t.
I’m assuming there are still black market systems that criminals can use to bypass the lock and jailbreak the phone?
Locked devices are probably still good for parts. A replacement touchscreen, Touch ID, or camera, or other “removable” components could still be valuable to those who need to get theirs replaced. Apple should implement tying components to a single serial number, much like how the Xbox 360’s ban detection can tell if something is replaced or different.
But if you tie all the parts together via ID it would make it impossible for honest people to replace their own LCD display’s which is the first thing to break on these devices.
The chart is meaningless. How did the WSJ pick those cities? Because the numbers didn’t fall in those cities during the time period chosen by the WSJ?
That’s like saying drinking and driving doesn’t cause accidents because deaths didn’t fall in a handful of cities after a drunk driving law was passed.
When you cherry-pick your data, all meaning in the numbers is lost. Many academic researchers lose their jobs by publishing such nonsense, but in the WSJ it seems OK. Stupid.
:’) I’m glad there are people who understand manipulative statistical practices. It is so so so easy to manipulate data to your liking when you aren’t in the academic field. 4 cities on a chart doesn’t mean anything, but they probably didn’t have anything else to report on. As long as theft has gone down overall then the “kill switch” policy was successful, end of story.