[gnicholas]

Is there a website that has a list of the steps you should take if your phone is stolen? My first instinct would be to use someone else's phone to google "what to do if your iPhone is stolen".

But I wouldn't know how to determine if the instructions I was seeing were incomplete, or outdated. Is there a trusted, frequently-updated site that we can easily remember and plug into our friends' phone if and when this terrible thing happens to us?

[varenc]

This Apple support page has a section on "If your iPhone or iPad is lost permanently or was stolen" : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201472

[gnicholas]

Very cool, thanks. I notice it doesn’t mention anything about changing bank passwords or the like. Might that be necessary, depending on how long it’s been out of your control? That is, if someone swipes your phone and was able to peak at your password (as a recent WSJ series focused on), you would probably need to take more dramatic steps if you didn’t realize it was gone immediately. Should I be making a list of the apps on my phone that have sensitive information and can be accessed without FaceID?

I wish it were possible to designate an app to require FaceID or both my device password and my Apple ID password (or some other second authentication). Does this new updates fix this issue entirely? I feel like not because until I mark the phone stolen it doesn’t know to lock the holder of the phone out of my apps using just my device password.

[varenc]

The Apple article does tacitly mention:

> You might want to change your password for other accounts, too.

Personally I would trust iOS security enough to not be too worried. Especially if I can issue a remote wipe in a timely manner. As long as the phone isn't swiped out of my hand while unlocked, I'm doubtful the average thief will be able to get past the lock screen. (Though I'm also assuming the thief doesn't have my passcode)

[pc86]

If something like a phone is stolen it's probably safe just to change everything. The inconvenience of having to go through and change your important passwords manually (including your manager's master password of course) is relatively minor compared to your financial accounts getting breached.

[bertil]

> I wish it were possible to designate an app to require FaceID

Developers can require that. Several apps I use do.

[gnicholas]

Oh yeah, I wish that it were possible as a use preference, on a per-app basis.

[NoZebra120vClip]

I have an Android phone, and a few months ago I left it behind in a Waymo autonomous vehicle.

Awhile ago, I added the "Find My Device" site to my bookmarks and I'd tested it out a few times. So I started there. And I also used Google Voice to place a voice call, so when it didn't ring in my home, I knew it wasn't here.

The Waymo passenger answered and there was much giggling. She kept saying she didn't know what to do. I said just leave it in the car.

So, knowing it was out of my control, I sent the remote wipe command, and hoped for the best. It turned out, the passenger also used the "Emergency Call" to send a text to my emergency contact. She offered to leave the phone in a pharmacy across town! I don't know how that would've helped.

Anyway, I did recover the phone at the Waymo Depot. It had obeyed the remote-wipe command and it was factory reset, with a full battery. It actually came out better-than-new, as the subsequent updates applied a few nice features.

[pc86]

> She offered to leave the phone in a pharmacy across town! I don't know how that would've helped.

Well for one, the pharmacy isn't moving.

[NoZebra120vClip]

I would say that moving the phone from the place I left it would promote it from "lost" to "stolen".

Can you now envision a conversation between this passenger and the pharmacy clerk:

"I found this phone in some car"

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Hold on to it until some guy I don't know comes to claim it?"

"We don't want this personal property! Go away!"

[Waymo car is gone now]

[Passenger absconds with phone or throws it away]

[Owner is no longer able to track or retrieve phone]

[rezonant]

Moving the phone from the place it was left with consent of the owner is not theft.

And it's not that crazy to leave lost property with a nearby business (presumably a trusted one)- sure they could say no but then you could just find another way to return the device.

Also why would you not be able to track it any more if they left it at the pharmacy, it's not like the Find My Device feature only works in Waymos. I guess you just mean due to the sequencing of wiping before noticing the text message?

[NoZebra120vClip]

> Moving the phone from the place it was left with consent of the owner is not theft.

Tell me more about how I somehow gave consent to that. Also, tell me more about how a stranger holding a random found device authenticates a caller as the owner of said device.

[rezonant]

> The Waymo passenger answered and there was much giggling. She kept saying she didn't know what to do. I said just leave it in the car.

I inferred that you discussed this with the person, since you indicated you talked to them via voice. That would have been the perfect time to arrange for return of the device.

I guess after reading between the lines, this person didn't suggest this action during the voice call, only via the text you discovered afterwards?

Elsewhere you mention that leaving the phone in the car was the best course of action, but the next person in that waymo could easily have swiped it.

I suppose a middle ground could have been to tell them to put it in the back seat pocket or something so that it was a bit more hidden while you contacted waymo support to let them know to retrieve it.

> Also, tell me more about how a stranger holding a random found device authenticates a caller as the owner of said device.

This is a little much. That's quite a threat model you are operating under. It explains why you immediately wiped. I think most people are not concerned with that contingency.

[pc86]

Unnecessarily rude and combative reply. The GP is clearly talking about the hypothetical scenario where you consent to her leaving it at a pharmacy - which certainly makes a lot more sense than just leaving it in a car. You said she offered to leave it at a pharmacy. Then didn't. So it doesn't seem likely she was going to do anything without thinking she was allowed to.

[kemayo]

You're overthinking it; it'd just be "I found this phone". They don't need to give the backstory. Most businesses will hold onto valuable lost property for a while, on the assumption that a customer dropped something.

> I would say that moving the phone from the place I left it would promote it from "lost" to "stolen".

A really key element here is that they offered to help you out by leaving it there for you, so I don't see how "stolen" would come in to it...

[pc86]

Honestly I can't envision that conversation happening between two real people. What is much, much more likely to actually happen in my experience:

"I found this phone."

"Ok." takes it

You go in later "I lost my phone, do you have it here?" and they hand it to you. For particularly fastidious store clerks they may ask you to describe it before handing it over. And you likely have to wait while whoever you ask asks all the other employees if they found a phone.

It's not clear to me that letting the phone just sort of drift through the ether toward the Waymo Depot while who knows how many other passengers use the car is any better than putting the phone at some other fixed location behind at least some cursory level of security.

[kemayo]

It's also not leaving the phone at the mercy of an unknowable number of future Waymo customers until it got back to the depot.

[NoZebra120vClip]

You mean the Waymo cars that are bristling with dozens of cameras and sensors? The Waymo service where I immediately contacted Support and informed them, so they could recall the vehicle or have it meet a worker who could search it? Dunno, dude.

[tzs]

> She offered to leave the phone in a pharmacy across town! I don't know how that would've helped.

If I had been the one to find your phone, I probably would have told you to suggest some other drop off place I can take it to that isn't too far out of my way, and if you could not or would not I would have probably taken it to a police station.

I would not leave it in the Waymo, even if that is what you wanted, because I have no guarantee that some other Waymo passenger after me will find it and steal it before you can get it back from Waymo. That could leave me as the last person known to have been in possession of the phone. I have no interest in becoming a suspect in the theft of your phone.