Another one of these…
And again it’s all about recycling and not a peep on making big bucks by flipping devices bought (or in this case gifted) on the cheap.
I’m all for recycling and reusing devices, but being realistic helps as well.
The statistics on theft plummeted once activation lock was introduced.
The alternative resolutions often uttered will negate that or have unintended consequences. For example, if you can just wait out the clock because after X months it’ll unlock, then theft will be on the rise again.
Another “solution” is to be able to contact the previous owner.
Aside from the headlines writing themselves: “Apple now allows muggers to harass victims to unlock devices from comfort of home”, there are some serious security implications with this.
Spamming users with prompts will lead to accidental unlocking and it gives opportunity to phish people.
Then some people suggest, what essentially amounts to, transferring ownership on inaction by automatically unlocking if owner doesn’t do X, Y or Z within a certain time. Which is just ridiculous on principle but also for practical reasons, what if I ignore an email because I think it’s a phishing attack. Do I then deserve to not be the owner anymore?
All of this is nonsense and the solution is simple.
Everyone should know about activation lock by now, especially people dealing with second hand Apple devices.
Apple is already doing their due diligence by guiding users through getting the device ready for sale during the reset process and instructing people to disable the activation lock.
The rest is up to owners and recyclers. Don’t want to be left with a pile of non-working tech, then don’t buy it without the guarantee from the seller that it’s unlocked and/or their guarantee that they’ll unlock it if it turns out to be locked. Undo the sale if they don’t come through on the basis that you were sold something that doesn’t meet the state you agreed upon.
That’s it, these are the very real and simple solutions.
But the reality is that that isn’t what recyclers want.
Despite yammering about how much they care about Repair, Reuse, Recyle. If that’s truly what they cared about they’d be hammering it into sellers minds that they won’t buy it if it’s not reusable.
No, the truth is that they know what they’re buying. They’re buying heaps of devices with no guarantees made for pennies on the dollar that are specifically sold for that cheap because it comes without guarantees, in the hopes they can flip it and extract a nauseating profit out of it.
But when they fail because so many end up not being reusable, they get frustrated and want the entire society to bend to their benefit while beating the “recycling” drum to seem wholesome.
And quite frankly the dishonesty is getting tiring.