Having a phone stolen is a massive inconvenience, and it used to happen on large scale. The main way to reduce the risk of that (which actually works) is by ta

Having a phone stolen is a massive inconvenience, and it used to happen on large scale. The main way to reduce the risk of that (which actually works) is by targeting the motivation of the thieves by making the stolen device nearly worthless for resale or reuse - i.e. literally making both the device and its parts unusable even for a semi-skilled operator of a pawn shop buying large quantities of stolen phones. It's not that my specific information is so worth protecting, but that there is a social benefit as if everyone's phones are nearly worthless to steal, then the thefts go way down.