[jedberg]

How hard would it be for a minimum wage employee of a "certified" recycler to steal the key necessary to unlock locked phones?

A security feature with a backdoor isn't a security feature anymore.

[faitswulff]

Users can already unlock devices themselves over iCloud, correct? What if it just pinged the previous owner to ask if it was legitimate?

[StillBored]

The problem is that a certain percentage of users set-up the icloud account with a password, then promptly forget it exists until they need it. Which tends to be when they have also forgotten their pin, because the pin is now similar to the icloud password and not required for every unlock.

[faitswulff]

Still, it would allow for some devices to be properly recycled and resold while maintaining security for the rest.