One of the changes Apple made to mobile security with iOS 7 was with Activation Lock, which is basically where the person who has reported their phone lost/stolen will have to enter their Apple ID and password to reenable it. The goal was to deter thieves from stealing phones since a stolen phone would essentially be rendered useless if the thief does not know the person’s Apple ID and password. We have seen lawmakers put Activation Lock to the test in which the results were fairly positive, but what’s the point of having a security feature if no one uses it, right?
George Gascon, the San Francisco district attorney, is now calling on Apple to enable this feature on all their smartphones by default, and requiring users to choose to opt-out as opposed to opting-in. We can see the merits of this proposal, especially since not all iPhone users might know about the feature, and having it enabled by default will offer them peace of mind, even if they don’t know about it, as opposed to them losing their phone and getting upset and frustrated because of a service they had but did not bother activating. What do you guys think of Gascon’s proposal? Do you think that features like Find My iPhone and Activation Lock should be enabled by default?