[memco]

I believe it is possible to activate them separately, but Apple also has full-disk encryption, which obviously you should enable if you are concerned about data theft. The remote wipe I think is just for extra peace of mind, but the encryption should really be your first line of defense.

[e12e]

You really should use full disk encryption on all media today. If for no other reason it makes it easy to dispose of disks as you outgrow them, without worrying about erasing personal data.

Windows 10 Pro has bitlocker, Linux has LUKS, FreeBSD have Geli, and OS X has its own system.

[HenryBemis]

I remember reading how Microsoft had weakened Win8 bitlocker security (compared to Win7) [1]. I don't know what is the status/comparison to Win10. If someone has, please reply.

[1] https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/has-bitlocker-been-w...

[Esau]

From Wikipedia:

Starting with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Microsoft removed the Elephant Diffuser from the BitLocker scheme for no declared reason.[47] Dan Rosendorf's research shows that removing the Elephant Diffuser had an "undeniably negative impact" on the security of BitLocker encryption against a targeted attack.[48] Microsoft later cited performance concerns, and noncompliance with the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), to justify the diffuser's removal.[49] Starting with Windows 10 version 1511, however, Microsoft added a new FIPS-compliant XTS-AES encryption algorithm to BitLocker.[6]