Stolen IPOD
My Ipod was stolen 1 month back and I would like to tell Apple so they can flag it as stolen. Apparantly the norm is for them to do...NOTHING.... in cases such as these.
It would be so easy to build code into itunes that would allow the ipods connected to it to be tracked. A log of serial number, time, date and IP address should be sent to apple automatically and IF one of those ipods is flagged as stolen or lost then an email sent off to the owner who registered it.
Send an email to the person who cares most about getting it back. They would take this information to the police and follow it up.
It all makes complete sence to me. Why hasnt Apple implemented this as yet?? It should be simple and automated all via the Apple website. It shouldnt be costly to implement something like this.
Please help me to understand why things are not done in this way.
It would be so easy to build code into itunes that would allow the ipods connected to it to be tracked. A log of serial number, time, date and IP address should be sent to apple automatically and IF one of those ipods is flagged as stolen or lost then an email sent off to the owner who registered it.
Send an email to the person who cares most about getting it back. They would take this information to the police and follow it up.
It all makes complete sence to me. Why hasnt Apple implemented this as yet?? It should be simple and automated all via the Apple website. It shouldnt be costly to implement something like this.
Please help me to understand why things are not done in this way.
Comments
Originally posted by wezy904
My Ipod was stolen 1 month back and I would like to tell Apple so they can flag it as stolen. Apparantly the norm is for them to do...NOTHING.... in cases such as these.
It would be so easy to build code into itunes that would allow the ipods connected to it to be tracked. A log of serial number, time, date and IP address should be sent to apple automatically and IF one of those ipods is flagged as stolen or lost then an email sent off to the owner who registered it.
Send an email to the person who cares most about getting it back. They would take this information to the police and follow it up.
It all makes complete sence to me. Why hasnt Apple implemented this as yet?? It should be simple and automated all via the Apple website. It shouldnt be costly to implement something like this.
Please help me to understand why things are not done in this way.
Are you serious. That is absolutely ridiculous.
1)A log of serial number
2)time & date
3)IP address
and NOTHING MORE, I would say yes to this immediately. There has to be balance struck in a case such as this and this option is the lesser of two evils. You have to give a little to get a little and what you get back far exceeds what you give.
More importantly, why should Apple care that someone stole your iPod?
The moral of my story ... have someone steal your car and claim the iPod was in there along with all of your tools and stuff. I'd rather you committ insurance fraud than Apple log my iPod.
Sorry dude, but looks like you just live and learn...
Personally, I think there should be more practical additions to iTunes such as this (and re-downloading lost/stolen purchased music. I mean, come on!), but I also fight strongly for privacy. If Apple checks the serial number of a "NEW" iPod against a database of stolen S/N's or even twice a year, I can live with that. It is when you store information on a user, tie it to an account, or can gather other information by the frequency of iPod use, that I my problems arise.
There are some obvious oversights in iTunes that wreak of RIAA restraints and I am split between pinning this iPod check on Apple or the RIAAA. On one hand, Apple does respect users privacy pretty well but not 100%, (MiniStore anybody?) but on the other hand this technology could easily be abused for marketing purposes and I can imagine Apple shooting themselves in the foot rather than walk with the RIAA by forbidding such technology in their contract.
Sounds like a good idea, and shouldn't be too difficult to implement I suppose. One would have to send Apple the iPod box/packaging to prove original ownership perhaps, and make a non hackable disable-er thing to make the iPod stop functioning completely.
Im no securities expert, it just seems alot simpler than people are making this out to be. I am over the first hump of apple doing nasty things with my information.
Suggestions?
Sure you lose out on an iPod, but then again, if stealing iPods becomes useless (which it most notably would to most) then iPods wouldn't be stolen.
Of course you could get really anal criminals that load iTunes on to a computer without an internet connection and use the iPod that way. Though if the machine itself goes on the internet the serial number could be kept on iTunes (on the machine) and "phone home" to verify the serial number and then disable the iPod when it is next connected, so disconnecting the internet whilst using a stolen iPod wouldn't work either...
I also agree that music should be allowed to be redownloaded from the iTMS, just recently I lost around £50 of music when I accidentally erased my hard drive (I was mucking about with some partitioning tool - you can blame my curiosity in Windows Vista for that one). Luckily, I have most of the music on my Mac (the erased drive was in a PC), so I suppose in reality I've lost about three quid's worth.
Anyway, going back to the topic at hand, can't you call up your mobile phone network and get the device disabled if you discover it's stolen? I think you could use a similar technique without invading privacy if you really wanted to remotely disabled iPods. I'm sure there's a solution.
Oh, and by the way I do apologise for coming across as a bit of a twat - I didn't realise until I looked at the post the next day.
Originally posted by max_naylor
Anyway, going back to the topic at hand, can't you call up your mobile phone network and get the device disabled if you discover it's stolen? I think you could use a similar technique without invading privacy if you really wanted to remotely disabled iPods. I'm sure there's a solution.
Yes you can do that with mobile phones, the sim card gets deactivated when you claim it is stolen, although it may cost you something. Obviously iPods aren't wireless, so the method of disabling them would not be as fool proof as the mobile phone solution, however it is a solution nonetheless.
oh and on the whole point of stolen ipods becoming useless because they would be locked up, there are always hacks out there to undo them. i used them on unlocking my psp. and people are always working to get around them. so i think that locking up ipods with software just slows down hackers. it dosent stop them.
I know, I just made the dreaded "If you fight for privacy, what are you hiding" statement. Ten lashings.
Originally posted by israel's anger
i bought my ipod from a girl at my school. so did my brother. so does that mean we would be tracked according to your plan? they were both used and registered under diffrent names before we had them.
oh and on the whole point of stolen ipods becoming useless because they would be locked up, there are always hacks out there to undo them. i used them on unlocking my psp. and people are always working to get around them. so i think that locking up ipods with software just slows down hackers. it dosent stop them.
Only if there were reported stolen. And the original owner would have to produce the paper work and box for the iPod they wanted to claim it as stolen. So no, you wouldn't be tracked.
I would make a measure built into the iPod that once identified, would fry a chip in the iPod so that it physically could not work anymore, not a simple hack. There aren't ways around that.
Originally posted by israel's anger
sorry no. im a senior in hs. i dont have 300-400 USD to throw around.
Simple. Keep the fucking thing in your pocket. Unless you get jumped (don't wear the white headphones in a dangerous neighborhood), you pretty much deserve losing it.