Cops want Apple, Google to kill stolen phones remotely – so why won't they?

HELLFIRE

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/04/apple_google_stolen_phones/

UK legislators are questioning why Apple and Google have yet to implement measures to allow smartphones to be locked, reset, and prevented from accessing cloud services after they’ve been stolen, as requested by police. … In response, Apple said remotely locking stolen phones after they were stolen or blocking cloud services might create other attack vectors for fraud against legitimate smartphone users, while Google said its relationship with customers was through its cloud accounts, not the device. …

Regards

toolman1990

HELLFIRE I hope the UK and other countries force companies like Google and Apple to start bricking lost/stolen devices since thieves should not be benefiting financially for their crimes. That way it stops rouge countries like China who literally do nothing to stop the theft rings operating out of their country.

urbanriot

toolman1990

I hope the UK and other countries force companies like Google and Apple to start bricking lost/stolen devices since thieves should not be benefiting financially for their crimes.

You would hope that until someone bricks your phone and you lose everything. From a logistical and technical standpoint their stance on this topic makes sense and I support it. It should be up to the end-user to lock their own phones.

toolman1990

urbanriot Yes, I would I do not want a thief to be able to profit off my stolen phone. In addition, most Android/Apple phones store your data in the cloud not local storage.

SpHeRe31459

urbanriot

Agreed. As an end user it’s very easy to choose to brick your stolen Apple device if you have “Find My” turned on. Reporting it Lost in iCloud renders any modern Mac or iPhone basically useless. It will power up but then it will never get beyond the initial firmware phase where it checks in with Apple. You can also specify you want it remotely wiped the next time it connects to the Internet (again it has to be connected to do much of anything after the device boots up).