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It's more than data. Apple's disk encryption already does that on iOS. Activation lock isn't just data protection: It is Anti-theft. The concept was that bric

It's more than data. Apple's disk encryption already does that on iOS. Activation lock isn't just data protection: It is Anti-theft. The concept was that bricking the hardware if it is stolen would reduce the, at the time, massive rise of theft. Activation lock on iOS (and all kinds of keying hardware to that board) basically shut down cell phone theft as they become worthless. They added the same to MacOS.

jrockway 4y ago
Yeah, I haven't heard of someone having their iPhone stolen since about 2015. Killing the illegal resale market with "if you don't know the password, the phone is a brick" is probably the biggest reduction in crime that society has ever experienced.
- MagnumOpus 4y ago
  > Yeah, I haven't heard of someone having their iPhone stolen since about 2015 You haven't been paying attention then. In London, phone snatching (iPhones preferred) has been and remains an epidemic to the tune of tens of thousands a year - in a single city. They might not be resold at full price, but even selling to a fence for parts is profitable if your acquisition cost is zero.
  - throwawaysleep 4y ago
    Well this is the second level of security that is needed. A phone should not function with any parts from a phone that had the lock.
    - nordsieck 4y ago
      > A phone should not function with any parts from a phone that had the lock. That would be extremely expensive to design. Probably impossible. Especially when component level repair ala Louis Rossmann is possible. https://www.youtube.com/@rossmanngroup https://www.youtube.com/@rossmanngroup
      - agloe_dreams 4y ago
        At component level, yeah no impossible but for general resale it wouldn't be too hard. I'm pretty sure the Face ID and Touch ID modules already do this. You would need to add some general identifiers to parts with a GUID and at production/official repair time, register those parts to an iPhone S/N. If Activation locked, those parts would need to not be able to be registered to another iphone until the original device is unlocked, thus clearing those parts.
        nordsieck 4y ago
        Look - I get that it's probably not too hard to do with most of the parts that contain active electronics, but the comment I was replying to said all the parts. How are you going to lock down the phone body? Or the screen (not including the digitizer)? Which, coincidentally, are probably the 2 most damaged parts of a phone. I suppose there's probably some way Apple could lock them down. But that seems like an expense wildly out of proportion to the potential benefit.
    - widowlark 4y ago
      this is a terrible idea that will lead to massive waste for hundreds of years
    - phil21 4y ago
      And now we're into John Deere levels of "fuck you, pay me" whenever anything breaks. No thanks. The secondary repair market is extremely important to keep on life support. If you cede all repair work to manufacturer blessed shops the amount of waste and expense skyrockets. I want patched together laptops working 12 years from now, just like I have old T-series laptops from back in the day with various replacement parts humming away right now in my homelab. It's silly to just toss everything in the trash the moment is breaks.
      - Gigachad 4y ago
        That secondary market is made up almost purely of stolen phones.
  - agloeregrets 4y ago
    > They might not be resold at full price, but even selling to a fence for parts is profitable if your acquisition cost is zero. Apple has started blacklisting parts associated with locked iPhones. At this point the only reusable bit is the case and possibly battery. The display, Face ID, Touch sensor, and such are all bricked. Overall the reduction is massive in any form. There isn't a 100% effective solution but you can easily cut down on 90%.
    - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
      How have they been rendering unusable displays from stolen phones?
  - a4a4a4a4 4y ago
    What parts? The screen / front camera assembly also stays locked if the phone it was on was stolen. The FaceID / TouchID data is stored on the camera module.
  - iso1631 4y ago
    Isn't the idea you steal an unlocked phone, then use that for further crimes?
- JCharante 4y ago
  My family has still gotten their phone stolen (albeit when abroad). Anti-theft is the reason I'm happy to support Apple's practices that make it harder to swap generic components between phones. I'd rather no components be swappable without Apple intervention.

jrockway 4y ago

Yeah, I haven't heard of someone having their iPhone stolen since about 2015. Killing the illegal resale market with "if you don't know the password, the phone is a brick" is probably the biggest reduction in crime that society has ever experienced.

MagnumOpus 4y ago
> Yeah, I haven't heard of someone having their iPhone stolen since about 2015 You haven't been paying attention then. In London, phone snatching (iPhones preferred) has been and remains an epidemic to the tune of tens of thousands a year - in a single city. They might not be resold at full price, but even selling to a fence for parts is profitable if your acquisition cost is zero.
- throwawaysleep 4y ago
  Well this is the second level of security that is needed. A phone should not function with any parts from a phone that had the lock.
  - nordsieck 4y ago
    > A phone should not function with any parts from a phone that had the lock. That would be extremely expensive to design. Probably impossible. Especially when component level repair ala Louis Rossmann is possible. https://www.youtube.com/@rossmanngroup https://www.youtube.com/@rossmanngroup
    - agloe_dreams 4y ago
      At component level, yeah no impossible but for general resale it wouldn't be too hard. I'm pretty sure the Face ID and Touch ID modules already do this. You would need to add some general identifiers to parts with a GUID and at production/official repair time, register those parts to an iPhone S/N. If Activation locked, those parts would need to not be able to be registered to another iphone until the original device is unlocked, thus clearing those parts.
      - nordsieck 4y ago
        Look - I get that it's probably not too hard to do with most of the parts that contain active electronics, but the comment I was replying to said all the parts. How are you going to lock down the phone body? Or the screen (not including the digitizer)? Which, coincidentally, are probably the 2 most damaged parts of a phone. I suppose there's probably some way Apple could lock them down. But that seems like an expense wildly out of proportion to the potential benefit.
  - widowlark 4y ago
    this is a terrible idea that will lead to massive waste for hundreds of years
  - phil21 4y ago
    And now we're into John Deere levels of "fuck you, pay me" whenever anything breaks. No thanks. The secondary repair market is extremely important to keep on life support. If you cede all repair work to manufacturer blessed shops the amount of waste and expense skyrockets. I want patched together laptops working 12 years from now, just like I have old T-series laptops from back in the day with various replacement parts humming away right now in my homelab. It's silly to just toss everything in the trash the moment is breaks.
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      That secondary market is made up almost purely of stolen phones.
- agloeregrets 4y ago
  > They might not be resold at full price, but even selling to a fence for parts is profitable if your acquisition cost is zero. Apple has started blacklisting parts associated with locked iPhones. At this point the only reusable bit is the case and possibly battery. The display, Face ID, Touch sensor, and such are all bricked. Overall the reduction is massive in any form. There isn't a 100% effective solution but you can easily cut down on 90%.
  - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
    How have they been rendering unusable displays from stolen phones?
- a4a4a4a4 4y ago
  What parts? The screen / front camera assembly also stays locked if the phone it was on was stolen. The FaceID / TouchID data is stored on the camera module.
- iso1631 4y ago
  Isn't the idea you steal an unlocked phone, then use that for further crimes?
JCharante 4y ago
My family has still gotten their phone stolen (albeit when abroad). Anti-theft is the reason I'm happy to support Apple's practices that make it harder to swap generic components between phones. I'd rather no components be swappable without Apple intervention.