My worry about something like this is it's essentially opening it up to be a remote access tool for anyone that can figure out how to trigger it while not being Apple.

I would personally prefer to just lose my phone and have robust measures to stop thieves from accessing my data than increase the possibility of bad actors/govt using it as yet another surveillance tool (or at least more than it already is).

Agreed. I don't care about my phone, I can get a new one. I care about my data. Apple has great online storage and syncing so I can lose my device and be back up and running again on a new device. I'd rather see something that basically allows me to say "This device is stolen, make it worthless." Where Apple waits for it to phone home once and then they brick it so that it has to be taken to Apple to be reversed, notifying Apple that it was a stolen device.

> Maybe even add a stealth version of Lost Mode, so the phone is furiously spying on the user in the background.

Prey (preyproject.com) does this. It'll take pics and screenshots and send them to you along with GPS coordinates at regular intervals.

With enough political will (and slightly better security against tampering and spoofing), the "huge personal risk" part could have been done already, since for a phone to be useful it has to broadcast a unique IMEI number along with its location.

Throw it into low power mode, but with loud alarm noises at random intervals... Annoy the thieves into giving it back...

I mean, if I steal a thing and am annoyed about it being impossible to do anything with - I'm probably going to hit it with rocks and then throw it in a canal. I might just lob it in the bin. The one thing you can guarantee - I'm not giving it back

Edit: Uhh, repetition it seems. God damn I need to not leave HN windows open for a couple hours then replying without refresh.

Yes, but I would probably not bother stealing one again.

or more likely annoy the thieves until they launch it into a river.

That's still a net benefit. If theives learn that stolen iPhones are both annoying and unprofitable then they'll stop stealing them. Especially if they know the iPhones are being tracked and that they are at risk of being caught.

And that's the last iPhone they try to steal.

Why would it be a risk though? Police don't care about stolen phones.

Depends where you live and what kind of PD you have. There are plenty of places with a low enough crime rate that going after a pickpocket / thief for an $800 iPhone would be a good use of officer time.

Even in places with average crime rates, solving crimes looks good and if you've got the means to arrest someone for theft that makes you look good as a result.

Obviously if your day-to-day as a police officer involves the cartels or something you won't care about an iPhone. But if you live someplace where a murder would make the news regardless of the circumstances, someone will probably look into it if you can prove you know where the thief is (or that the phone was in a given house/apartment).

Yup, not only does it 'look good', but it gets a low level criminal off the street, sends a message to other people in similar circumstances, and (contrary to some beliefs) most cops actually like arresting criminals and returning stolen property.

We have that already, no need to implement that. The reason Apple is not providing this "stolen" service is it would reveal all the backdoors implemented to spy at us.