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[–] 127 points 1 year ago (19 children)

Everything they stole is literally a tracker. So stupid.

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  • [–] 62 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    They rip them apart and use the non-serialized components as repair parts. If apple didn't try to overcharge for and restrict repair parts this would be less of a thing.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    Aren't a lot of the parts married together though? Like, you can't just replace a fingerprint sensor without throwing errors.

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  • [+] 31 points 1 year ago (6 children)
  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Activation lock is designed to prevent reuse of stolen parts like this. Don’t know how successful this is, what components it’s tied to, and it doesn’t work on older models.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    No, this is a thing because it’s lucrative. It’s also pretty quick and easy to disable a tracker if you have the right equipment.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    The devices in the apple store are not retail phones. They have special software that makes them dedicated trackers the second they leave the store’s perimeter.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Do you have a source for that? Is it just an app?

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    It's not a retail device, and it's loaded with a store version of iOS. It's tracked specifically to that apple store. Here is a recent article. The phones are designed to work while they're connected to the apple store wifi and that's it. You'd get more useful spare parts if you robbed people outside a nightclub.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Yes, but these can be disabled and the phones still used for parts.

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