HT4865 When using. " find my iPhone". It uses the apple ID. Anybody can reset any device ( automatically resetting the apple iD as well . Thus turning the device as if was bought brand new or was given to somebody as a gift. Serial numbers can't be res

Question

Why can't we track serial numbers and not the apple iD.   Since serial numbers can't be reset or erased. ? 

Answer 1

Unfortunately it is in both Apple's and your carrier's economic interest to not provide such a feature. One would think that with all the technological capabilities that apple has provided us with that they would be able to do this as well. That's the point here, they are able to do it, probably quite easily; but it's economically beneficial to them if they don't. Remember, Apple doesn't provide the find my iPhone app as a pre-downloaded application, you have to do so yourself. One may say this is for privacy reasons, but there are clearly other reasons as well. So, Apple has no incentive to add such a feature unless it becomes an issue (customers demanding it or other companies providing such a feature). Thus as consumers we need to make this an issue that apple must address. I too lost my iPhone. The fact that Apple doesn't provide a feature such as allowing one to "flag" their device as stolen and thereby preventing that device from being unlocked, reset in itunes, or immediately turned into a tracking device when turned on is pretty frustrating and ridiculous. Apple provides very limited functions in their native find my iPhone app, and yet there are many more features it could provide. I'm aware of apps that provide far more capability, such as preventing shut down, taking pictures, taking audio/video recordings, remote backup, photo capture after failed unlock, call log, sms forwarding, and even constant GPS tracking. My point here is this, Apple can easily provide features that would further enable you to recover your apple device but there isn't an incentive to and there is actually economic incentive to not provide such features. We need to provide them with the incentive to do so, or else it is likely to never happen.