Because 99% of the time it saves one's ass.
Three times now I've left my iPad in a shopping cart. All three times my phone has gone "WAIT! WHERE'S THE IPAD?" as I left the parking lot and all three times I was able to retrieve the iPad.
That's where understanding what one bought into matters.
The great security model comes with costs and risks same as anything else does.
Fact is, he let someone else take control of the machine.
Apple really should explain this to people. It is a scenario nobody wants to be in.
Many Apple products are bought from third party resellers who don't capture this information.
For instance, I've given family my old laptops, and they setup their accounts after they take ownership of the device. The way I interpret your comment with regards to my scenario is that Apple should disregard the fact it is locked to their iCloud account and unlock it for me, because I can prove I was the original purchaser - even if they accidentally left it at my home or I steal it from their home.
Is that what you meant, that if I can give Apple a receipt then I am the de facto owner no matter what? Or am I just way off base?
No way would they unlock a device like this for your relative. It's odd that they won't unlock it even for the original owner. In what cases do they even plan to unlock these devices?
On the contrary, they even have a page explaining how to prepare the device for ownership transfer: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065
How would or could they? Apple devices have the biggest second-hand market.
I guess I'm surprised they don't! As the other commenter points out they have a page dedicated to this. I conflated their stance on secondary sales with their hardware and software self-service hostility.
Right of first sale applies here.
If you sell your devices, create a receipt. This way the legitimate owner can prove that they own the device now.
It's that simple.
For more background on this, the fact that you actually have the laptop in your possession is the key point:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possession_is_nine-tenths_of...
All I know for sure is I can say I'm glad I'm not a lawyer!
If for instance the device had been sold to a different owner, that owner should have the receipt and be contactable (they have the email address and probably other info). And if the owner declared theft, we're out of Apple's field and it should be an official claim.
I see the passing down to a family member situation in the same light: if it was an informal transaction, the official owner is a still the same, and getting back the device unbricked and wiped out shouldn't be an ethical connundrum.
The thing that gives me the most pause is that Apple keeping a hard line on refusing to unbrick the device means they get an additional purchase from someone who's already heavily invested in the ecosystem. From their POV, bricking more devices has no counter incentives.
That's currently how it works. Except for OP of course.
I personally think that a better tactic would be to create a separate device that is paired to the machine, comes in the box, and can bypass activation lock. This would layer nicely on top of the existing system without forcing rigorous document management and an appeal to an opaque system of power to exercise true ownership over your own computer.
I'm reading in between the lines here, but I think it was a mistake.
Why would you put goods to the value of $749 in your shopping cart, much less leave it behind there?
It saves your ass, yeah, but maybe you should ask yourself if you would have learned a better lesson leaving it in there once and losing it forever and then being more careful in future.
Because they live in a functioning society where mislaid things are generally returned to their owner with no harm done?
Australia is not the only place with a functioning society.
Your comment is rather short-sighted and not adding to the conversation.
For a lot of those people, the security model just works. Same for their online activities and apps.
There are at least these scenarios:
They have been helped by the model. Yay Apple!
Nothing has happened to them yet. Yay Apple, and surely Apple being so great is why.
They have been burned by the model. BOO Apple!
Fact is the machine is not broken and is working as designed.
The owner did not take full advantage of the security and left the door open for someone else to walk through.
No judgment on the owner.
Now Apple? Yeah, a bit too draconian for me.
And I am on the other side of this mess. Bought a very new M1 Air from them. Cheap because the owner had died and nobody knew the password.
Interestingly, I had booted into recovery mode, and I found I could mount the SSD and a USB thumb drive which let me pull docs, pictures and such for them.
After that, I was able to boot into installing a fresh OS, supply my Apple ID and use the computer just fine...
Had it been in lost or stolen status? Probably would not have worked out..
At the time, I gave security a lot of thought. The Apple stuff is good enough people really do need to understand it or risk bad scenarios like this.
(I turned Find on)
My daily driver is a lenovo. The Apple is a fun machine for me.
You asked why. Hope this helps.
I was under the impression that Apple Silicon Macbooks had disk encryption enabled by default and that this wouldn't be possible. Turns out while that is technically true, it's only relevant in the case of the SSD somehow being removed from the device and installed in another. In the case of real disk encryption FileVault needs to be enabled. Apparently it's easy to miss that step during setup, especially if you setup the Macbook without an Apple ID/iCloud.
As a Macbook user I'm not at all concerned about this happening to me since I have find my set up and my mac has stickers on it so I can clearly identify it as mine and avoid this mixup.
And I also benefit from the theft resistance features.
He simply does not have control of it.
In any case, Apple can't be blamed here. Apple does not know what really happened.
Here is a great example of why Apple takes the position they do:
Sim card takeovers. Remember when most of tech thought tying accounts to phone numbers was a good idea?
Remember the people saying that was a very bad idea?
People can get their digital lives taken, or very seriously impacted just by someone knowing a phone number!
The same social engineering and or permissive policy being advocated for in this laptop case gets used all the time to swap a user's sim card!
Once that has been done, the attacker can do password swaps and cause all sorts of grief.
The question is: “how are people apologising for the fact that Apple are refusing to support individuals who are locked out of their own devices?”
The question you are answering is an irrelevant hypothetical whereas question being asked is a very legitimate consumer request.
It’s like dismissing a mugging by saying “it’s ok because they didn’t stab you”. Both are legitimately wrong but only one of those scenarios is being discussed.
That didn't happen.
> or just not responded to the request to send it back
That didn't happen either.
If you fail to register your purchase (harder to do with a car, but stick with me) and go to the dealership, you won't get the activation code. This is literally what happened to OP.
The funny thing is that for this particular car, removing the radio (really the full navigation head unit) would have been a major undertaking, requiring specialized tools and quite a bit of time. If a thief has that much time and expertise, losing the radio is the least of my worries.
It's no different than say....keys
Next time you might try a different dealer, or a locksmith.
Because it's a very effective theft deterrent. All of my Apple devices have Find My turned on. If someone steals my MacBook or my iPhone, I can track them with the app. I can also remote wipe the device and brick it until my password is entered. If Apple agreed to remove the Activation Lock for the thief then they would get the full benefit of stealing it. Since Apple has an ironclad policy of refusing to remove the lock, there is nothing a thief can do to remove it.
If the thief cannot unbrick the device in any way, it is worthless to them. This deters stealing.
"Apple’s Activation Lock Leads To Big Drops In Smartphone Theft Worldwide"
https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/11/apples-activation-lock-lea...
With small claims court, I doubt my Japanese fluency is sufficient, and researching how to go about it would take more time than it is worth.
The article was worth my time because it makes others aware of the situation.
It’s a personal attack and tears someone down for no purpose that contributes to the discussion.
Right, which is why you need to be prepared to escalate and not put up with their crap. Apple's no different from the others.
Said no one ever while setting up Windows 11, which forces one to use a Microsoft account, or otherwise you just can't use your device.
It's not all the same, but people accept a lot of nonsense from a lot of companies just because "can't do anyway nothing against it".
Yeah, no. For the average user you actually cannot.
https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/install-windows-11-witho...
I haven't tried it myself, I'm trialling an "upgrade" to Pop OS rather than Win11. So far so good, full credit to System76 for the progress they've made a in a few years. I'd consider buying one of their systems if they handled tax + duty for international shipping - insanity can ensure in the UK for packages that arrive without it all arranged.
Slightly more on topic, I've never trusted Apple.
Why do people accept this nonsense when it's Apple? They wouldn't for any other company.
You bought and paid for a laptop from them. It's broken. You've gone through their process and they haven't fixed it. At that point you escalate to a credit card chargeback and/or small claims court.