Hacker News Reader

Comment by twawaaay | Hacker News Reader

On the other hand makes theft of Macbooks unprofitable. Which I am super happy about. I want all my devices to be worth scrap if they are ever stolen.

And I am even happy as a second hand laptop buyer. The last thing I need is to buy a stolen laptop. At least here, I am still liable even if I don't know for a fact that it is stolen. In any case I don't want any part in stolen goods market.

I think, over time, laptop owners will learn to preserve their key so that they can unlock the laptop when they want to resell it and buyers will learn to check if the laptop is unlocked. What's the problem?

View on HN

The problem is that they are not properly scrapped. A perfectly good laptop ends up as electronic waste, and not just stolen laptops, it happens to end-of-life laptops from big companies too.

If you could ask Apple to pick up the laptop for free, so that they can refurbish it and sell it at a discounted price, it would be no problem. No business for thieves, no waste, and more good machines available for a budget. But they have no reason to do that as it goes against their business model.

Apple couldn't do that because they'd potentially be making money off reselling stolen goods. If you can contact the original owner, then you can ask them to unlock it. If you can't, then how can you know that the device wasn't stolen?

Aren't there legal exceptions when you give out something? Otherwise it could cause a lot of trouble to charities that work with donations. It would be a big problem for the recycling industry too.

Even if there's a legal loophole (I doubt it), why would Apple want to become known as a reseller of stolen laptops? I don't know the legal technicalities, but if you have a reasonable suspicion that an item might be stolen, then reselling it is at least unethical and probably legally dubious too.

I steal a MacBook and then give it to a charity for the tax deduction.

The problem with making any exception is you open it up for thieves

> On the other hand makes theft of Macbooks unprofitable.

Only if the thief knows that. An organized robbery ring might. The opportunistic kid hanging around the cafeteria or coffee who has 5 seconds to swoop may not.

If my laptop gets stolen, I might have the last laugh, but it'll be a forced one.

The reason laptops or phones are stolen is simply because they're perceived as valuable. If stealing an Apple product isn't perceived as a good opportunity people will opt to steal other phones and laptops instead. It will take time for this feedback loop to be circled a few times.

Even the thickest of individual thieves will soon get it that "Apple log" == "impossible to fence". They'll still be stripped for parts and there are some shady Chinese factories that can actually defeat Apple's locks, but it's statistically insignificant.

It will participate in Find My, so you can take your phone, get the location and have a chat with the person who stole it.

But yeah, I wish Apple would run some ads about this feature, so that would be theives would realize they were worthless.

Theft is still profitable. They are maybe getting less money by selling for parts to a fence than if selling a laptop that can be resold straight away, maybe by themselves. Still some money.

With some devices like iPhones Apple goes even further preventing swapping the components between phones. This prevents selling stolen devices even for parts.

Yep, this is exactly why the TouchID component is paired with the motherboard/display.

Otherwise the thief could just steal the phone, wire in a hacked Touch ID that accepts any thumbprint and resell the phone.

This way it's way too expensive to be profitable unless you're doing it on an industrial scale. Most thieves resort to trying to con the previous owner into giving their Apple ID for unlocking.

sortof, it may just mean more complicated networks for selling/shipping for use as parts. see this example of a stolen iphone from london getting shipped to china: https://hachyderm.io/@em0/109494729273725207

Sure, but the incentive is still reduced. That is a good thing.

If Apple actually cared about solving stolen devices, it would be possible to return the device to Apple. Failing a reunification with the owner, it would be passed on to a recycling center.

Forcing laptops to be scrapped only solves the problem of Apple's bottom line.

Apple do recycle devices, don't they? https://www.apple.com/uk/recycling/nationalservices/

who cares about the earth or reusability when I can stick it to the errant thief once

Yes - quiet. The upshot is that such devices stop being theft target, so remain usable by the owner or a legitimate subsequent owner.

I refuse to buy any expensive device without this feature.

Your trolling disguised as moralizing is not particularly welcome.

Its not trolling, I find this design absolutely morally abhorrent. I dont buy new devices, I always buy used, and theres nothing more disgusting to me than a bricked but perfectly usable device. In the future there will be stacks and stacks of these m series macbooks, the owners will be long gone and no longer care what happens to them, and people who need them wont be able to use them, ever. Thats horrendous and not at all what I want from my technology.

If you buy it from the legitimate owner, they can transfer the ownership to you.

and if the legitimate owner is dead? What about if they simply also forgot the credentials? What about items that have been forgotten, or left in a drawer for some time? How about devices from a business that went bankrupt? what about donated school laptops?

You can contact Apple and they can unlock it for you.

only if you are the original owner, which circles back to my first point.

Wrong again. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208510

that only addresses the first problem, which is what if the user has died - and they have to be a family member. It's extremely limited

Good. I do not want arbitrary people to be able to unlock my electronics and use them as they see fit - especially thieves.

> I want all my devices to be worth scrap if they are ever stolen.

A device which exploded if it was ever more than 15 feet from you would also satisfy that desideratum. There are other things to take into consideration.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com