Activation Lock: Apple slammed by dealer over MacBook security feature

Apple has a restrictive policy on the sale of second-hand laptops, and to prevent products being stolen from retail stores, big tech has developed an Activation Lock feature for the MacBook, allowing owners to remotely lock their devices if they are lost.

On the other hand, John Bumstead, owner of a used computer repair and sale store, said in an interview with VICE published on Tuesday (24) that this policy means that computers in perfect condition to be used by new owners are for parts extraction onlysince it is practically impossible to bypass the blockade.

The MacBook’s Activation Lock is a feature made possible by the Apple T2, a coprocessor that is currently built into Apple Silicon, so it’s impossible to remove it without rendering the notebook’s entire motherboard useless.

Until 2016, even before Intel’s transition to ARM, the manufacturer only required that the storage unit be replaced, but this component became soldered to the motherboard from the year in question, making it unfeasible to resell the device.

Bumstead claims that the issue has been getting worse since 2020, as companies and educational institutions that usually maintain a two- to three-year life cycle for their computers have begun to replace notebooks with latest generation models, generating a large volume of locked laptops that cannot be resold.

It is possible to unlock the MacBook using the previous owner’s credentials, but that too is a complicated task, according to the retailer.

“Previous owners don’t return calls, and large corporations that dump thousands of machines believe they’ve been destroyed, so it’s critical that we have a solution that doesn’t depend on prior owner approval,” Bumstead said, adding that the owner original of the device is not always the current one.

In practice, anyone can contact Apple support to unlock a MacBook, as long as they present the receipt or invoice from the store or website where it was purchased — like Mercado Livre, for example. Apple will try to contact the original owner of the device, and if he does not respond within 30 days, the company will unlock it.

Bumstead, on the other hand, seems to want resell notebooks that were destined for recycling and purchased unethically, as authorized centers — which meet a series of standards to protect data stored on the Mac — are prohibited from transferring the devices, and in these cases, the Activation Lock cannot be removed.

So far, Apple has not commented on the matter.