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No, they cryptographically pair the hardware because it makes repair impossible. If they only cared about security you would be able to use a new fingerprint se
by callalex 3y ago
No, they cryptographically pair the hardware because it makes repair impossible. If they only cared about security you would be able to use a new fingerprint sensor or camera in an old device after wiping/factory resetting it. They have even started pairing screens and batteries, which are not security devices.
- derefr 3y agoApple doesn’t care about repairability one way or another. They thing they care about, that makes it seem like they hate phone repair, is that there are gangs of pickpockets who steal phones and send them in bulk lots to China, where they’re scrapped for parts to use to repair other phones, or to build phones or other devices that use phone parts. (Search “my stolen iPhone ended up in Shenzhen” if you don’t believe me. This is a whole thing.) Apple borrowed the cryptographic pairing system they created for security in the fingerprint reader, and reused it for the display et al, to make stealing iPhones to scrap them for parts pointless. This has massively decreased the value of these phones on the black market (all you can really extract now are the low-value bits like the speaker or charging assembly); which has in turn made iPhones the least desirable target for thieves. Every hurdle you have to jump to take part in Apple’s self-serve repair program — the “phone Apple to activate the pairing of these parts” step, the only being able to order parts once you have a specific broken device to order them for, etc. — is the way it is precisely so that the people who scrap the stolen phones can’t participate.