iPhone Theft Protection

Discussions center on smartphone theft, especially iPhones, and Apple's Activation Lock feature's role in deterring thieves, including its effectiveness, bypass methods, and personal theft experiences.

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Keywords

MAC cbslocal.com SIM techcrunch.com ID AT IMEI AND E.g FTP stolen phone device theft iphone thief apple phones thieves owner

Sample Comments

philipwhiuk Jun 17, 2025 View on HN

How does it handle phone theft?

shadowfox Oct 7, 2012 View on HN

Interesting. How do they handle stolen phones?

DaveExeter May 2, 2023 View on HN

What if the thieves don't have an iPhone?

Xylakant Apr 21, 2023 View on HN

It’s not related to personal theft, but to activation lock. Apple can (and will) lock these phones as well.

throwaway0x7E6 Dec 21, 2022 View on HN

what do you consider security here? you still lose the phone - the thief isn't going to return it to you, and he will still get some money for it from a fence.

jb1991 Oct 13, 2023 View on HN

It works too:"Apple’s Activation Lock Leads To Big Drops In Smartphone Theft Worldwide"https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/11/apples-activation-lock-lea...

ceejayoz Apr 4, 2022 View on HN

Sounds like a good way to discover people steal unattended phones.

rdtwo Dec 1, 2022 View on HN

Apple probably remotely bricked all of the phones, plus get are all tracking. What’s the point of stealing those? They aren’t even putting them in a faraday cage so the tracking is still going. It would be trivial to catch the idiots if the police did their job

duxup Oct 24, 2025 View on HN

Doesn't Apple's stolen device system work pretty well?

luuurker Nov 12, 2023 View on HN

These "locks" might reduce theft, but not only they still happen, but you can also make money with a stolen phone. You can sell it for parts. An iPhone will annoy you about the replaced display, but the phone still works. You can transfer the old battery's controller to the new one so the phone doesn't know about the change. You can sell the shell of the phone, speakers, cameras, etc.Maybe now I benefit from these Apple restrictions and annoyances, but I've been using