Apple tracks looted iPhones and gives out police looters

Thieves participating in the latest riots in the United States, faced with an unpleasant problem. According to Bbc, Apple tracks and disables iPhones that have been stolen by looters from its broken stores in different cities of the country. When the smartphone turns on, an ominous message appears on the screen, which reads: “This device has been disabled and is being monitored. The local police will be notified. ” The report also says that smartphones should be returned to the Apple Store from which they were taken.

It is unlikely that the looters will go red-handed with the stores, and, rather, such smartphones will be thrown away somewhere. But it’s more important for Apple to send the right warning. It has long been rumored that devices lying on shelves in Apple stores actually have built-in software that allows them to be tracked in case of theft. Now the looters got to their homes, and some from anonymous accounts post messages on social networks, asking how they better deal with such devices.

One of the smartphones, whose photo was posted on Twitter, told the looter that he should be returned to Walnut Street, where he was stolen. This is one of Apple’s stores in Philadelphia that has recently been robbed.

The same store

Legally purchased devices do not come with such software, but can be blocked remotely if Apple receives information that they were stolen or lost.

As a result, unfortunately for looters, the market for stolen iPhones almost does not exist. Due to iCloud and FindMy, device owners easily block and turn off their smartphones remotely, making them almost useless. Apple tracks the serial number of all iPhones, and disconnects the device as soon as it connects to the Internet. After the company introduced such a function in 2013, cases of theft of iPhones in some cities decreased 50%. Even if someone has lost a smartphone, it’s easier to try to return it to him, and expect a reward.

It is unclear how many Apple stores in the United States were affected by the attacks. They say that it can be dozens: glass walls and the abundance of expensive gadgets inside makes them a tasty target. Hundreds or thousands of smartphones have been stolen. And at a rather bad time: the company only recently reopened its points in the United States after removing some of the restrictions imposed due to coronavirus. Just last week, Apple reported that half of its stores will be open this weekend. But many of these stores had to be closed the other day.

Luthers and those who sympathize with them are trying to justify their behavior by saying that, according to them, Apple itself steals from American citizens by tax evasion (about $ 40 billion a year). The company holds most of its money in Ireland. Another popular criticism is that there aren’t a single African-American or Hispanic leader in Apple’s leaders out of 16 primarily these are white men.

This criticism of the company has been going on for several years, and as a result, since 2017, Apple has even released reports about the “diversity” of races in their ranks, showing that the situation is improving every year. On the official website, the company devoted a whole problem to such a problem. page. From there, for example, you can find out that there are already more than 38% of women in Apple, and 35% of different minorities. In the IT sector, by the way, there are fewer girls: only 23%.

To try to appease protesters, Apple also posted yesterday open letterin which CEO Tim Cook described how much he does not like racism, and that the company will continue to support various initiatives in this direction.