“Ahead of a meeting with government officials later this month to discuss how Apple could prevent increasing smartphone crimes, Apple today introduced a new feature called ‘Activation Lock’ that it says will be ‘a really powerful theft deterrent’ when released later this fall in iOS 7,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac. “If a user’s device is stolen, wiping the device clean will essentially leave the thief with a device that is inoperable without the user’s Apple ID and password.”
Kahn reports, “Government officials in the US were calling Apple, Google and others to a ‘smartphone summit’ later this month on June 13 to discuss the increasing amount of smartphone related crime in New York city and the rest of the country. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon have been pushing smartphone makers to come up with solutions to prevent crime and discourage thefts of devices.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, this simply attempts to remove Apple devices from thieves’ lists. With the root causes for what makes criminals steal things from others wholly unaddressed, thieves will simply be stealing something else from victims. Good for Apple and, once the word gets out “on the street,” good for Apple device users. That’s about it.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
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U.S. officials call on Apple, other mobile device makers to help stop smartphone theft – June 6, 2013
New York City crime is up and Mayor Bloomberg blames Apple iPhone thieves – December 28, 2012
Apple product thefts in New York City outpace rise in overall crime – September 25, 2012
Police bust up New York-based crime ring focused on Apple products – October 8, 2011