Stolen iPhone -- Were they able to access my info?

Question

Stolen iPhone -- Were they able to access my info?

Hello everyone,

I had my two-week-old iPhone X stolen on the 27th of December. The scumbag grabbed it right from my hand and ran for his life... I reported the incident to the police right away, and checked Find My iPhone (on my Windows machine) as soon as I got home. Unfortunately, there was no location information for my stolen iPhone X. At the time I wasn't entirely sure that Find My iPhone was actually activated, but I checked my Apple account and it seemed it was set to 'on'. However, the handset appeared to be 'Offline' (I assumed the thief powered it off as soon as he could).

I activated Lost Mode and also ticked the 'Notify me when found' box... Of course, I haven't received any email notification about the handset. I keep trying to locate it with Find My iPhone, but it's no use as the status is still 'Offline'.

A few hours after the incident, I went to iCloud and deleted all info I could find, such as photos, contacts, etc. I didn't want to erase the iPhone as this would have ruined any chance of locating it some day. I have been checking Find My iPhone regularly ever since, but with no luck. The handset is apparently still 'Offline'.

I had both Face ID and a passcode set up, but I'm still afraid he was able to access my iPhone nevertheless. I'm not really happy with them seeing personal photos of myself, my significant other, or relatives. He wouldn't have been able to access my Apple ID account though. Is there a way I can be sure he hasn't accessed my info? The passcode was pretty easy to figure out, it was quite random and I dare say pretty intuitive...

Find My iPhone says that Lost Mode is pending and will take effect when the iPhone connects to the Internet. Now, if they powered it on, then would Lost Mode have been activated only if the phone had Internet access? Or would it have been activated anyway? Because if the latter is the case, then I shouldn't have any reasons to be worried about the thief (or thieves) gaining access to my info. But if it's the first, then the thief might have accessed photos from my iCloud etc.

One more thing -- if they're still signed in to my Apple ID account, does this mean that any photo I save to iCloud on my iPhone 8 Plus and Macbook Pro devices can be accessed by the thief as well? Same goes for contacts, videos, notes, Pages documents, etc.

This is what I see when I go to device info and Find My iPhone on my new iPhone 8 Plus handset. I removed sensitive data for privacy/security.

It used to be like this until about 2 weeks ago:

As you can see, the top part with Find My iPhone and iCloud backup doesn't show up any longer. Does this mean they were able to access the iPhone?

Disclaimer: This iPhone X was my first ever Apple product, and am still not very familiar with the operating system/its features.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Best regards!

iPhone X, iOS 11.2.1

Posted on Feb 6, 2018 3:40 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Feb 6, 2018 7:54 AM in response to LadyOfShalott

You are welcome. The device has to connect to the Internet to enable the Lost Mode.

"If your device is offline, the passcode lock and tracking (if applicable) take effect the next time it’s online."

iCloud: Lock and track your device using Lost Mode

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Feb 6, 2018 8:19 AM in response to LadyOfShalott

You are welcome. The thief may have turned the phone off immediately to avoid tracking. Internet access is required for an iCloud Backup.

I don't think there is any way to know if they bypassed the passcode/Face ID. If they did, for them to see iCloud data, the phone would need to access the Internet, which would trigger the Lost Mode.

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Answer 3

Feb 6, 2018 6:21 AM in response to Eric Root

I'm afraid not. I've been through those two (and many more like them) already.

What they say is that, basically, my handset somehow hasn't been powered on since the date of the incident, and as a result it appears to be 'Offline' in Find My iPhone (plus Lost Mode is still pending). But I don't know how accurate this is since the same can happen if the handset doesn't have Internet access.

By the way -- if somebody somehow manages to log out of my Apple ID on the stolen iPhone, will it still display in my account? Because if they somehow succeeded in bypassing both Face ID and my passcode, they could have tried to sign out of my Apple ID account so they could use their own. In this case, will the iPhone be erased from mine?

As it is right now, it seems that they were not able to sign out of my Apple ID account, and therefore the handset is pretty much useless to them unless they get it to one of those dodgy shops/dealers who can somehow hack their way into it and reset it.

Any other advice?

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Feb 6, 2018 7:21 AM in response to LadyOfShalott

If they can get past your passcode and Face ID, and if they can sign out of your Apple ID, then the phone would be removed from your account. You have done all you can to protect your data. Without physical access to the phone, I can't think of anything else you can do. As the article explains, you could erase your device, but then you couldn't track it.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Feb 6, 2018 6:10 AM in response to LadyOfShalott

Apple's suggestions. See if the articles answer your concerns.

Device - Lock and track using Lost Mode

Device lost or stolen

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Answer 6

Feb 6, 2018 7:39 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks for the answer, at least now I don't have to worry about my device having been removed from my account.

Now, I activated Lost Mode about 2-3 hours after the incident, and 1 1/2 months later, it is still pending. Meaning, my handset isn't locked. Do you happen to know if Lost Mode takes effect only if the device is connected to the Internet? If that's the case, then the feature isn't really useful for stolen phones since thieves will remove the SIM card and probably attempt to bypass the Face/Touch ID and passcode without Internet... In my case, they removed the SIM card about 2 hours after they stole the device. I tried calling my iPhone at the time, and the calls were going through (of course, nobody was picking up). I activated Lost Mode after the calls were no longer going through.

But this means that my iPhone had about 2 hours of Internet access (mobile data), and I checked Find My iPhone about 1/2 - 1 hour after the incident without any location information for my handset. No location history either. WHY?

If Lost Mode doesn't require Internet access to take effect, then the thieves most likely haven't attempted to power on the handset (which is kind of absurd) since it hasn't taken effect yet...

It's extremely confusing.

And as I have three Apple products using the same Apple ID account, iCloud data such as photos is viewable on all devices, right? I mean, even if I deleted all data at that time (the stolen iPhone X was my only Apple product at the time), now all photos I take are stored in iCloud anyway, and they can be accessed from any device that's signed in to my Apple ID account... right? Which, honestly, is terrible.

Many thanks!

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Answer 7

Feb 6, 2018 8:09 AM in response to Eric Root

Yes, I suspected it must be so. This means my iPhone was only protected by Face ID and passcode (and probably still is).

What puzzles me is that, even though my iPhone was supposed to have Internet access for at least 2 hours or so after it was stolen, there was no available location data about it. Also, iCloud backups stopped on that (fatal) day. Without Internet access, I suppose iCloud backups stop as well, right? By the way, I can see no activity in the Health app for this handset -- it all stopped a day before the incident, the 26th of December.

And as I have three Apple products using the same Apple ID account, iCloud data such as photos is viewable on all devices, right? I mean, even if I deleted all data at that time (the stolen iPhone X was my only Apple product at the time), now all photos I take are stored in iCloud anyway, and they can be accessed from any device that's signed in to my Apple ID account... right? Which, honestly, is terrible.

What I'm trying to deduce is whether or not they could have bypassed Face ID and passcode. So I'm trying all possible venues.

Thank you very much!

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Stolen iPhone -- Were they able to access my info?

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