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Ashmizen t1_j25mj4h wrote

Reply to comment by Levelman123 in New York breaks the right to repair bill as it’s signed into law | The bill was signed by NY governor Kathy Hochul on December 28th, making New York the first US state to broadly protect a consumer’s right to repair their own tech. by chrisdh79

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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