4 ms·

I’m not sure what the situation for the M1 is, but as the parent comment referenced similarity to the iPhone to prevent theft, with the iPhone, the owner can un

I’m not sure what the situation for the M1 is, but as the parent comment referenced similarity to the iPhone to prevent theft, with the iPhone, the owner can unlock the device prior to resale. Is this really not possible with an M1 Mac?

southerntofu 5y ago
Probably but many people forget to. Or sell the device once they haven't used it for years, and forgot the passphrase. Or give it away without leaving contact information and without thinking about the passphrase at all. I don't have statistics at hand, and overall the M1 is pretty new so it's not a problem for this device YET, but it's a serious problem i notice several times a year in my close circle.
- simondotau 5y ago
  If a device ever enters the second hand market, it is nearly always sold soon after it is replaced. Phones contain ungodly sums of private and intimate data, most everyone knows to find the button which wipes it. If they press that button, they are prompted to disable activation lock. Activation lock has nothing to do with the phone's pin or passphrase, by the way. It's tied to an iCloud account. In the exceedingly rare instance where someone has forgotten the pin they used to unlock a device continuously for two or three years, they can disown the device by signing into icloud.com from any web browser. It's curious that you don't even know how the process works, which makes me begin to doubt that you've ever had to deal with it.
  - southerntofu 5y ago
    > most everyone knows to find the button which wipes it Not talking about Apple hardware/software specifically here, but i don't see the same here. Most computers donated to associations i'm involved with was never wiped, even when coming from corporations/institutions. Sometimes though, we do receive computers without (EDIT:) harddrive, but it's still the minority. I can count on my two hands the times someone has donated to us fresh system installs (user data wiped), in over two decades. > they can disown the device by signing into icloud.com from any web browser That is, assuming you know these credentials. Most people who are not entirely locked inside the Apple walled garden create an account because they're forced to but don't care/remember actual credentials, then forget it. Same goes with other kinds of credentials, not just Apple... but only forgetting Apple (and a few others, like Samsung) credentials turns hardware into useless paperweights. Or maybe the person has diseased, or moved to a foreign country. Or maybe they've just donated the old phone in a box full of random stuff and by the time you realize the phone is locked the person has already gone and you have no way to reach them. In my personal experience, even with hardware directly donated by friends, fishing for an old passphrase more often than not raises "uuuuuuugh i gotta have this password somewhere, let me check and i'll call you back in a few days" (<-- loop here for about 3 months before you give up). > It's curious that you don't even know how the process works I pretty much know about it, thanks. I was suggesting precisely that iCloud lock be entirely removed, and instead a recovery mechanism would wipe the entire device as a privacy-protecting measure.
    - simondotau 5y ago
      Most people don’t think about the private data on their computer. Most people don’t know how to wipe a computer, and there’s no simple button like there on an iPhone, so they don’t. You have no idea how much of the stuff you receive is dumped on you after being stolen (or otherwise misappropriated) and judged too worthless to fence. But we certainly know that only the tiniest fraction of devices go to recycling centres like yours, and so of course you’re going to see mostly activation locked ones which have no market value—and not the other 99.9% of devices where activation lock didn’t preclude second hand sale, trade in, or commercial refurbishing/recycling.

southerntofu 5y ago

Probably but many people forget to. Or sell the device once they haven't used it for years, and forgot the passphrase. Or give it away without leaving contact information and without thinking about the passphrase at all. I don't have statistics at hand, and overall the M1 is pretty new so it's not a problem for this device YET, but it's a serious problem i notice several times a year in my close circle.

simondotau 5y ago
If a device ever enters the second hand market, it is nearly always sold soon after it is replaced. Phones contain ungodly sums of private and intimate data, most everyone knows to find the button which wipes it. If they press that button, they are prompted to disable activation lock. Activation lock has nothing to do with the phone's pin or passphrase, by the way. It's tied to an iCloud account. In the exceedingly rare instance where someone has forgotten the pin they used to unlock a device continuously for two or three years, they can disown the device by signing into icloud.com from any web browser. It's curious that you don't even know how the process works, which makes me begin to doubt that you've ever had to deal with it.
- southerntofu 5y ago
  > most everyone knows to find the button which wipes it Not talking about Apple hardware/software specifically here, but i don't see the same here. Most computers donated to associations i'm involved with was never wiped, even when coming from corporations/institutions. Sometimes though, we do receive computers without (EDIT:) harddrive, but it's still the minority. I can count on my two hands the times someone has donated to us fresh system installs (user data wiped), in over two decades. > they can disown the device by signing into icloud.com from any web browser That is, assuming you know these credentials. Most people who are not entirely locked inside the Apple walled garden create an account because they're forced to but don't care/remember actual credentials, then forget it. Same goes with other kinds of credentials, not just Apple... but only forgetting Apple (and a few others, like Samsung) credentials turns hardware into useless paperweights. Or maybe the person has diseased, or moved to a foreign country. Or maybe they've just donated the old phone in a box full of random stuff and by the time you realize the phone is locked the person has already gone and you have no way to reach them. In my personal experience, even with hardware directly donated by friends, fishing for an old passphrase more often than not raises "uuuuuuugh i gotta have this password somewhere, let me check and i'll call you back in a few days" (<-- loop here for about 3 months before you give up). > It's curious that you don't even know how the process works I pretty much know about it, thanks. I was suggesting precisely that iCloud lock be entirely removed, and instead a recovery mechanism would wipe the entire device as a privacy-protecting measure.
  - simondotau 5y ago
    Most people don’t think about the private data on their computer. Most people don’t know how to wipe a computer, and there’s no simple button like there on an iPhone, so they don’t. You have no idea how much of the stuff you receive is dumped on you after being stolen (or otherwise misappropriated) and judged too worthless to fence. But we certainly know that only the tiniest fraction of devices go to recycling centres like yours, and so of course you’re going to see mostly activation locked ones which have no market value—and not the other 99.9% of devices where activation lock didn’t preclude second hand sale, trade in, or commercial refurbishing/recycling.