Apple with controversial decision: Not all phones will be able to be repaired, new security measures announced by the tech giant
Apple has decided to implement new security measures according to which no iPhone that the owners mark as stolen or lost can be repaired.
According to information provided by the well-known site MacRumors, an internal letter from Apple instructed the employees not to repair the phones that were marked as stolen at a certain moment, or disabled by the owner from a remote location.
Discouraging thieves
It seems that this is a step that Apple has taken in order to discourage thieves, given that iPhones are the ones that retain their value the longest. Apple is known for the security measures it implements on its phones, and one of them is the ability to lock remotely.
Activated Lock phones are connected to their owners’ accounts and it is impossible to unlock them without them, at least through legal channels. The locked iPhone could only be unlocked through the owner’s account or through someone who had access to the GSMA registry – Apple resellers or people who changed the status of these phones in the registry for money.
GSMA registry
When an iPhone is stolen, it is marked as stolen in the registry of GSMA devices, an international database containing information on stolen and lost phones. The GSMA registry relies on an IMEI that is unique to all devices and allows companies like Apple to check if a phone is marked as stolen or lost when it is taken for repair.
Apple has previously refused to repair lost or stolen iPhones, but only when the Find My feature was enabled. Now the list of conditions is expanding, which means that stolen or lost phones will be harder to sell, especially if they have some damage.
