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Iphone IOS Software Apple Hardware

Apple Warns Looters With Stolen iPhones: You Are Being Tracked (forbes.com) 191

Following the rioting and looting from the death of George Floyd, Apple has a message for those who power on a stolen iPhone: "This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted." Forbes reports: Apple CEO Tim Cook sent a message to his employees as those protests escalated, saying that "there is a pain deeply etched in the soul of our nation and in the hearts of millions. To stand together, we must stand up for one another, and recognize the fear, hurt, and outrage rightly provoked by the senseless killing of George Floyd and a much longer history of racism." Cook went on to say that "at Apple, our mission has and always will be to create technology that empowers people to change the world for the better. We've always drawn strength from our diversity, welcomed people from every walk of life to our stores around the world, and strived to build an Apple that is inclusive of everyone."

These words were being digested as the tech giant made the decision to close the majority of its U.S. stores for the safety of those staff and its customers, stores that had only just reopened after the COVID-19 shutdown. Apple has unsurprisingly become a favored target of looters, given the likely spoils on offer, and the decision was taken to remove stock from shop floors and shutter locations. It has long been known that Apple operates some form of proximity software that disables a device when it is taken illegally from a store. Until now, though, little had been seen of that technology in action. Well, thanks to social media, we can now see the message that greets a looter powering up their new device: "This device has been disabled and is being tracked," it says. "Local authorities will be alerted."

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Apple Warns Looters With Stolen iPhones: You Are Being Tracked

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  • They promise they turn off the tracking when you buy the phone. DINKS!

    • What do Double Income No Kids have to do with this?
    • If they were smart, camera photos, video, audio, and all nearby SSID along with triangulated signal strength, etc. hell they should trick them into biometrics like fingerprints and face recognition before showing that screen.

      • by Bert64 ( 520050 )

        Unless it has a working simcard with data, how does the phone send its location or any other data?
        I had a phone that was stolen, totally disappeared and then 6 months later was briefly seen online from somewhere in bulgaria...

        • Knowing apple they prob struck a deal with the towers foe pre-configured phones to just pass the data and apple pays handsomely. Sim card is just an identifier. Its not a network stack. It doesnt have to exist if the tower doesnt want to restrict data. We bought some 5g and lte for purely internet/data endpoints.

        • Unless it has a working simcard with data, how does the phone send its location or any other data?

          You can call 911 / 112 (or whatever the emergency services number there is) even without simcard from your brand new freshly unpacked phone. If you can do that, phone has to be able to connect to nearby cell towers even without the card.

        • I had a phone that was stolen, totally disappeared and then 6 months later was briefly seen online from somewhere in bulgaria...

          If you want to actually use the phone as a phone, it needs to be activated. And Apple won't activate it.

        • Not that hard. You can call 911 from a phone with no SIM card. If you do that and the call is disconnected, 911 can even call you back. All without a SIM card.

          So obviously this sort of thing is doable on a technical level.

        • by psergiu ( 67614 )

          The SIM s just a billing ID. The phones in the network are identified by IMEI. SIM-less phones will try to connect to all nearby towers to get the list of available networks - all towers will log the IMEI, used antenna (usually with a 90 deg fov in urban areas) and distance from tower (based on transmission delay). There's a nice software package which will draw a line with timestamps on a google maps overlay.
          A SIM-less phone can be located on this info alone in a 10 meter radius. There's a also a forced lo

    • If you buy an Apple phone, you are trusting apple. Same for any other phone. Since the phone has the technical capability to track you - pretty much unavoidable given how cell phones work, all you can do is trust the manufacturer - or not own a phone.

  • by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @09:38PM (#60138268) Homepage
    Turn on the camera's phone and see who they are and get demographic breakdowns of who is actually doing the looting. age/race/etc.

    -Then we can stir the pot as to who to really blame for the riots.
  • That's it, just warn them.

    Why not say nothing, then next week, just hand the police department an iPad with a nice little app that identifies the stolen devices.

    Even better, download new software to capture the pictures of the people and surroundings. Then say, due to the COVID and protests, there will be a delay in activating them on the network. And send that information to the local police.

    • And thanks to the warning, the people with the stolen iphones can part them out, so they will be spread all over now.
    • It's a tradeoff, but deterring more thefts in the first place is much better for the company than knowing they got a few people arrested.
      • by Bert64 ( 520050 )

        If people who steal apple products get arrested more frequently, word will soon spread, and criminals will start refusing to deal with apple products.

    • That's it, just warn them.

      Why not say nothing, then next week, just hand the police department an iPad with a nice little app that identifies the stolen devices.

      Even better, download new software to capture the pictures of the people and surroundings. Then say, due to the COVID and protests, there will be a delay in activating them on the network. And send that information to the local police.

      You really don't get it. Better instead have a countdown timer and map tracking the police on their way...

      You will be arrested in: %D,%H%M.%S

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @11:44PM (#60138588)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @10:01PM (#60138324)
  • They should just show a black screen when turned on. In "solidarity".

  • Now would be a bad time to buy an iPhone cheap through ebay or any other resale site. They will be hot.
    • I might be in the market for a looted iPhone, the problem is finding a seller with good feedback.
    • I've always had this problem with buying used phones though. If it's a relatively new model, you can basically assume it is stolen, as who is going to sell a phone that is only a few months old, and at a reasonable discount. If there isn't going to be a reasonable discount, then why even bother buying a used phone and just get a new one. If it's a model that's a few years old, you can probably get something with similar specs for about the same price, and still has support for new software, and won't have a

  • by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @10:47PM (#60138432)

    and strived to build an Apple that is inclusive of everyone

    Cute, coming from a company that maintains a media blacklist. [google.com]

    Yeah, real inclusive, Tim.

  • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @11:10PM (#60138500) Journal

    Apple CEO Tim Cook sent a message to his employees as those protests escalated

    Why is it that yesterday half the CEOs in Silicon Valley decided to use emails to employees as their awkward personal blog declaring how much empathy they have?

  • by Darkling-MHCN ( 222524 ) on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @11:13PM (#60138502)

    When the people who steal your phones tweet a picture of themselves holding a phone with a message saying it has been stolen, you don't need a whole lot of technology to get them apprehended.

  • by retchdog ( 1319261 ) on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @12:23AM (#60138680) Journal

    "Local Authorities have been alerted. Would you like to begin plea bargaining with iPlead, brought to you by Apple in partnership with your local Court System?"

  • > "This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted."

    The only difference here is that the local authorities have been alerted. Otherwise isn't this BAU for an iPhone?

  • by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @02:17AM (#60138872)
    Don't they think the cops have enough on their plate right now?
    • by Shimbo ( 100005 )

      Don't they think the cops have enough on their plate right now?

      Looting is dangerous because it is contagious. Aside from the hard core, ordinary people who would normally steal see a load of stuff piled in a shop with the windows smashed and succumb to temptation. In the London riots, some of the looters found themselves before magistrates the next day, and getting deterrent sentences (some unreasonably so, and were later reduced on appeal. However, making people aware of the consequences of their actions, and being in a crowd is no immunity is a useful thing, especi

  • That's the main reason looters only loot Apple, for privacy reasons. Now your telling us we're being tracked? Damn, now I have to ditch this brand new iPhone Max and go back and loot that electronics store with the Xiaomi Max 10. ... It's got a better camera anyway.

    Thanks a bunch, Tim Cook. I'm looking proper quality from now on, no more Apple.

  • by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @09:24AM (#60139708)

    The editor really failed here. It combines Tim Cook’s comments on the situation with the anti-theft technology of demo iPhones looted from an Apple store. The demo phones on the store floor have specialized software. If stolen from the store, the phones are not just tracked but also immediately disabled until they are returned to Apple. Phones to be sold to customers are kept in a secured area and were not stolen.

We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts. -- Patrick Moynihan

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