Q: How do I return a device to it's owner?

You cannot unless they have used lost mode and put a contact message on it. Otherwise, turn it in to the police or the lost and found at the location you found it.   As you already know, neither Apple nor any carrier is going to divulge client contact information to anyone else, at least not without a court order to do so.

Turn it in to the police.

kevinds-apple wrote:

 

Now I completely understand Apple and a cellular carrier not wanting to assist, so they can sell a new device..  Better for business right?

 

...

Wrong, privacy is very important.

 

But is there any useful way to send a message to an Activation locked owner?  Asking if they did give it away or if it was lost/stolen how to get it back to them?

 

The whole activation locked process seems great for not allowing people to use a stolen device..  Lost device, don't have sympathy for..  But activation locked is for this purpose, how does one return a device to it's owner?

 

All I have found is talk to the last owner and have them remove the device from their account.

 

Well..  How does one actually do that?

 

When I find a device, I would be happy to return it to them.  Any suggestions how to do such a thing?

No, No, No. See comment above.

Return for a refund or hand it over to the local police.

Police do attempt to match received property against reported stolen items, funnily enough, thats part of their job.

Companies have a responsibility to protect their clients personal information. I sure don't want Apple or any company I do business with divlulging my contact information with any inquiring private citizen, under any circumstances.

kevinds-apple wrote:

 

So if Apple isn't going to divulge the information about who's device it is, without a court-order..  Do you have any examples of police getting court-orders, to get the owner's information, for the purpose of returning a devices to it's owner?

 

How does turning it into the police, achieve the task of returning a device to it's owner?

This is not your task or the police, real owner would have reported to the police.

The police will inform the person if any device was turned in.

Depending on which iPhone it is and how the phone is configured, you may be able to ask it who it belongs to. Invoke Siri by pressing and holding the Home button. Ask "Who does this phone belong to?". If the owner of the phone has Siri enabled from the lock screen and if they have set the personal information up in Siri, you may get information on how to contact them.

Apple is not allowed to give you information about the customer owning the device. This is pretty simple and is the policy in almost every company.

Best thing you can do is contact the police and see if the owner contacted them. In 90% of the cases they did.

-M

kevinds-apple wrote:

 

From what I can see, and find..  This Activation Lock system is broken.

Activation lock was never intended to be a means to get owners and lost/stolen devices back together. It's sole purpose was to render stolen or lost devices useless to those who find them.  As a dis-incentive to iPhone theft it has been highly effective, as reported by numerous police forces in large cities.  Many other cell phone manufacturers have rolled out or are rolling out similar anti-theft measures to make a stolen or lost device useless to others. California has even legislatively mandated such systems.  They work extremely well for exactly what they were designed and intended for.

You are attempting to claim failure based on a personally desired feature that was never part of the system from its inception and design.

Michael Black wrote:

They work extremely well for exactly what they were designed and intended for.

Some cities (London was one if I recall correctly) are reporting up to a 40% decrease in the reported thefts of iPhones since the Activation Lock was added.

kevinds-apple wrote:

 

I thought the purpose was to prevent devices from being stolen..

Activation Lock does not (and was not intended) to prevent any individual iPhone/iPad from being stolen. What it does is make all iPhones less likely to be stolen because, by virtue of the fact that there is a good possibility that they will be unusable, all iPhones become a less attractive target of theft.

 

 

However lost devices, are also locked, which wasn't the purpose.  If you hit 'Erase', will your 'message' still show?

I'm not entirely sure what that means. If you chose to send a "Lost" message to your phone through Find My iPhone, there will be contact information that someone can call if they find your phone. If you erase the iPhone through Find My iPhone, there will be no personal information remaining on the phone. That's the point. That's a choice the owner makes.

 

If your iPhone6 goes missing, would you be happier knowing that nobody else can use it, or would you be happy if someone tries to get it back to you?

Given the extremely small chance of every getting back something like an iPhone, I'd rather it be rendered unusable.

That is my suggestion though..  Add a contact function, to message the account it is registered to.

Submit your feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

kevinds-apple wrote:

 

I thought the purpose was to prevent devices from being stolen.. Which I'm sure it does..

 

However lost devices, are also locked, which wasn't the purpose.  If you hit 'Erase', will your 'message' still show?

 

If your iPhone6 goes missing, would you be happier knowing that nobody else can use it, or would you be happy if someone tries to get it back to you?

 

That is my suggestion though..  Add a contact function, to message the account it is registered to.

 

I will be surprised if this happens though, because I really believe Apple would rather sell another device, than help an owner get a device back.

 

 

Build-A-Bear can do it, and they don't have the financial means that Apple does.

Actually, yes, I am far, far more concerned about someone else not being able to use it or access my information than I am about getting it back. I can easily live without getting it back.  It's a device, nothing more. Easily replaced if I need to, and all my data is reliably, and redundantly backed up. But I do indeed want to know it is utterly useless and inaccessible to anyone else.

And despite your conspiracy theory of Apple's master plan to sell more devices, it really is about privacy and liability for protecting personal information, not sales. If Apple were to do as you think best, and someone's private contact information was given out without their consent or if someone complained they were confused or unaware that it was set up to be given out, the lawsuits would be swift, numerous and enormous.

And build a bear markets stuffed toys, not electronic devices with highly sensitive, personal and confidential as well as possibly corporate data stored in them. Bit of an off-target comparison there, to my mind and an utterly different model to get lost toys back to owners who wish to register their toy.   Note that build a Bear's "system" does nothing at all to keep someone finding your stuffed bear from simply using and enjoying it as their own.