The other day we reported that Apple’s Activation Lock feature would be put to the test. This test would be conducted by San Francisco and New York District Attorneys, George Gascon and General Eric T. Schneiderman. Both district attorneys expressed at that time while it was a good effort by Apple, they believed that it would not be enough to deter smartphone theft and resale in the black market, and instead pushed for companies like Apple to install kill switches in their phones which would permanently disable a device. Well it turns out that Apple’s Activation Lock might have impressed them because at least from Gascon’s point of view, it seems that he was pretty satisfied with what Apple had done, stating that the feature offered “clear improvements” when came to anti-theft measures.
Speaking to the San Francisco Examiner, Gascon was quoted as saying, “I’m very optimistic that they came and were willing to share their technology with us,’” referring to iOS 7’s Activation Lock and Samsung’s Lojack for Android. Activation Lock was one of the features that Apple debuted in iOS 7 and it basically goes beyond a simple keycode, but rather it requires the user to login with their Apple ID and password if they wanted to reactivate their phone. This is a move to prevent smartphone theft, and also to discourage stolen devices from being sold on the black market.
Filed in . Read more about iOS 7.