Security Settings iPhone Thieves Hate

Stolen iPhones are big business on the black market, but they're becoming less attractive to would-be thieves thanks to security features and theft deterrents in newer versions of iOS. Most iPhone owners know they need to lock their phone with a secure passcode and turn on the Find My iPhone, but Apple also offers some lesser-known security features.

Facial Recognition, Touch ID, and Strong Passcodes

iPhones with a Touch ID fingerprint reader or Face ID facial recognition add a layer of security by allowing users to use a fingerprint or facial scan instead of entering their passcodes.

Thieves don't like these features because people who use them are more likely to have a strong passcode rather than a basic 4-digit passcode. Complex passcode capabilities have been around for a while but are often underused. Occasionally, Face ID or Touch ID may fail, requiring passcode entry, but this is rare, so a complex passcode isn't as big a hassle as it once was.

On the flip side, if you're not using a strong passcode, thieves may be able to correctly guess it, making the use of Touch ID or Face ID as a security measure irrelevant.

Activation Lock Added to Find My iPhone

Activation Lock is automatically enabled when you turn on Find My iPhone. It keeps your device secure, even when it's in a thief's hands. Apple's anti-theft feature is credited with having a major impact on reduced iPhone theft rates worldwide.

The Activation Lock feature requires a user to authorize a data wipe or fresh installation of the operating system. Before this feature was part of iOS, a thief could wipe an iPhone clean, removing all traces of the previous owner and making it easier to resell.

With the addition of the Activation Lock, the phone's owner must enter their Apple account password before the phone can be wiped. This binds the device to a specific person and makes it a less attractive target because it cannot be easily wiped and resold.

Restrictions Lockout of Location Services

After thieves steal your phone, they turn off its ability to broadcast its location. This prevents the rightful owner or law enforcement from tracking its location.

You can make this task harder for thieves by enabling the iPhone's restrictions settings, which are normally associated with parental controls, and then lock out changes to location services. Enabling restrictions requires its own passcode, and a thief must know the code to turn off the phone's GPS homing beacon.

Lost Mode (Remote Lock)

Remote Lock is another data privacy and theft deterrent feature that Apple added to the iPhone OS. If you can't find your phone and you're sure it's not under a couch cushion at your house, Lost Mode will lock it with a passcode and allow you to display a message of your choosing such as "Give Me Back My Phone!" Lost mode renders your phone useless to thieves and helps protect your personal data.

When you can't find your iPhone, turn on Lost Mode immediately using Find My iPhone on iCloud.com.