Apple anti-theft feature now renders tens of thousands of what should have been "reusable" iPhones useless. For those that have donated an old smartphone in hopes of helping someone else or contributing to recycling efforts, it is important to put the device through a factory reset before giving it away.
The Wireless Alliance Recycler
According to PCMag, one particular electronics recycler in Colorado ended up having to scrap tens of thousands of old but still perfectly reusable iPhones due to their owners forgetting to deactivate the devices' official anti-theft systems. The Wireless Alliance is a recycler that ends up having to disassemble around 66,000 iPhones for spare parts over the period of the last three years because of this.
The activation lock, as seen on Apple's support page, prevents thieves from accessing the users data. This feature will also help users find their iPhone if ever it gets lost or even stolen. Unfortunately, however, the activation lock system can also prevent electronics refurbishers from being able to sell or donate old iPhones.
CoPIRG Shows Recycling Data
On April 11, 2019, the Colorado Public Interest Research Group or CoPIRG released a report showing data from The Wireless Alliance. The data outlines how these anti-theft systems coming from Apple as well as other smartphone makers could pose a serious threat to being able to make older electronics reusable once again.
The report notes that tens of thousands of supposedly good phones are turned into junk and recycled every year due to the activation locks. Just last year alone, the recycler noted that one in every four iPhones that they receive still hadn't disabled the activation lock.
Recycling Old Smartphones
Recycling old smartphones for their spare parts is still better than simply throwing them out and contributing to the whole world's much critical e-waste problem. As of the moment, however, the most environmentally friendly option is to actually first find a way for the devices to be reused.
The Wireless Alliance is one of the companies that really tries to collect donated smartphones with the main goal of either recycling or reselling to keep the hardware out of the already cluttered landfills. Over the course of the past three years, it has already been able to collect over 6 million cell phones through the solid help of donation boxes coming from businesses, schools, churches, and others spread throughout the United States.
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iCloud Protection
The report by CoPIRG, however, states that unfortunately, if the activation lock isn't turned off, the phone can't be reused and this renders the whole device unusable. On the Apple iPhone, the activation lock is actually separate from the phone's passcode which is entered when the user unlocks the device's screen.
When the activation lock is enabled, Apple's own anti-theft mechanism will then be tied directly to the owner's iCloud account by using their Apple ID and Password. If an iPhone is lost, the owner can simply use iCloud to find the device and simply erase every piece of personal information coming from the device.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian B.
