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Levelman123 t1_j25c7hl wrote

No, do not even give them that. The FTC has done plenty of research on this. There is absolutely no difference in data safety when an "approved Technician" is fixing your device and a third party technician is fixing your device.

In fact common sense says the third party if established will actually be much more cautious and handle your data a hell of a lot more safely than some dude working at the genius bar that had a 15 minutes breakdown on how to see water damage and tell you "nothing we can do" as the third party establishment has to uphold their reputation while the the genius bar guy can just go get another job.

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Ashmizen t1_j25mj4h wrote

Well if my iPhone is stolen, I want to ensure the thief cannot just take it to a repair shop and unlock it and get a nice free iPhone.

Today they get sent to shenzhen and sold for a tiny fraction of the value for just the parts, making stealing iPhones far less profitable.

If stealing iPhones can net you a unlocked phone by using some master security pass/reset, iPhones would be targeted by thieves like car cat converters, as we are talking about $500 value of phones vs $50 value of parts.

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Levelman123 t1_j25vazh wrote

Hmm. Not bad, This could be solved by insuring the same customer locks remain in place throughout the transaction. Or at least at the beginning and end of the transaction. Like repair shops cant unlock phones for the reason of "forgot password" as that is not a repair issue.

I guess the better question to ask would be does apple tech already have this? If so what is the difference to a guy with 15 minutes of training but branded an "apple genius" unlocking my phone compared to a guy with 20 years experience in his own repair shop doing it?

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Ashmizen t1_j26jwfa wrote

I would assume currently iPhones do not have any unlock mechanism - however, laws can force Apple to change their design, like the recent EU ruling that is forcing Apple to add support for multiple app stores on future iPhones

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IThinkIKnowThings t1_j26gh56 wrote

Culpability. It's much harder for Apple, who's ultimately responsible for their poorly-trained employees' actions, to get away with stuff like that. They're way too big with way too much government oversight. The public outrage alone would be palpable, with demands for Apple to pay. Meanwhile if Joe Blow jail breaks some stolen iPhones no one outside of law enforcement and those affected would know.

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Scizmz t1_j26sq3p wrote

> with way too much government oversight.

You're funny.

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FeralCJ7 t1_j25df8x wrote

If they sell the codes whatever to licensed technicians, will there be some sort of federal licensing required to ensure they don't sell it Joe Blow on the street though?

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Levelman123 t1_j25ee60 wrote

Why cant Joe Blow on the street fix his own device? I don't know how licensing works with phone repair as i cant think of anything dangerous enough to warrant such licensing. If my phone is broken, i feel i should be allowed to take whatever steps i need to make it operable. There is nothing i can do from my phone that would give me access to any backdoor systems in their systems, if their is, that is a them issue, and they should deal with it on their end.

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FeralCJ7 t1_j25glb2 wrote

I guess I'm looking at it from the perspective of right now the tools needed to break encryption and unlock devices aren't commonly possessed. So the incentive to steal my phone, which could happen, really isn't that high right now cuz I can lock it, wipe it etc.

But once you start selling the ability for people to crack devices it'll basically make locking your device worthless.

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Levelman123 t1_j25k4yi wrote

Those tools exist en mass currently. Data centers get breached constantly, any incentive to steal your phone already exists. And that incentive doesnt go away just because the person behind the desk is from apple or a tech shop.

In fact apple service jobs have high turn over rate, so the incentives to steal phones is actually higher then if you just gave it to "tom's repair" down the street. Thats what im getting at. There is no difference in security, so when they block any repair bill using security as an issue, just know they are lying through their god damn teeth.

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FeralCJ7 t1_j25peih wrote

I don't think I'm making myself clear.

I'm not talking theft from a shop. I'm talking theft from person. From car. Right now pawn shops (at least where I live) only take phones you can prove are unlocked. If anyone can just buy the stuff to unlock it thefts could go up.

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Levelman123 t1_j25s4y2 wrote

You dont need to buy anything to unlock a phone right now. Those tools already exist is what i was getting at. Plus pawn shop aint the best example. All i need to do to get around anything a pawn shop looks into is factory reset the phone and remove the sim.

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azvnza t1_j26a3pg wrote

a big example is more for iphones, you can’t remove the icloud account without the password. there is no way to do it, and it is still linked to the account post factory reset.

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DaRadioman t1_j26qcii wrote

That's not how iPhones work. You can't factory reset away ownership on them, they stay tied to the iCloud account.

Hence this whole damned conversation...

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Levelman123 t1_j27iqmy wrote

Okay. Then just make it so they have to sign in to their account first? I'm not sure where this convo ended up

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IThinkIKnowThings t1_j26gzdp wrote

"I don't know about you, but I don't want my tax money going towards yet more god damn government oversight." - Some Republican who at some point will cut funding to said licensing agency.

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