Android

Phones have been pre encrypted for years now

I wonder how few people do this these days

Doesn't do much.

Only your carrier would honor it, maybe even all carriers in your country, but they'll ship it off to some other country and the phone would still work (might be missing a few bands, but still fuctional).

The only way for it to actually deter theft is for the entire device to essentially become a brick unless unlocked.

The idea itself is a good thing. The only bad thing about FRP is that it's online-based instead of a local-lock.

Same as Apple: total platform control. Like HP and printer ink.

That assumes it's attached to a carrier. I had a phone stolen out of the mail.

I used to work on phones, it was so great getting to help design these pocket computers the way I wanted to use them. I honestly saw the future being something like, "ok, cloud is a bit of a trust reach, but on the other hand, your phone becomes a cheap access terminal." I assumed we'd hit a point, with how cheap the hardware inside the machine is, (to this day) where phones would ostensibly become something you could grab from a vending machine. They'd eventually become highly recyclable so you could just take an old phone and chuck it in a recycling bin to have the parts repurposed/recycled.

"Oh crap, my phone just fell out of my pocket and got run over!" Go to vending machine, chuck old phone in recycling, log in to new phone, old phone is nuked remotely if it still functions, new phone starts caching your "phone". You're back in business in minutes.

Phones would have no value to be stolen, phones are accessible to all walks of life, a fairness of technology access helps balance the world.

None of that happened, instead, it was a war of walled gardens, information hoarding, privacy violations, expense, distrust, and loan pyramid schemes so people can dump $1500 on $50-$200 worth of parts that will probably just end up being stolen and sold in aftermarket/underground markets in countries that are less well-off.

I'm kinda irked I ever tried to work on the tech to make lives better and do not regret my choice to not go back to that industry.

Doesn't your bank need 2 sets of creds to log in? Mine does.

also, i like my phone to be fast. If i wanted my phone just be a cheap thing, i'd buy a second hand google flagship from 3 years ago and flash with custom rom.

With my phone being high end, comes the risk of theft, like with virtually anything high end (watches, ice, etc)

You could just read the article. It is pretty straightforward and doesn't require any spyware or profiling as others have suggested.

Spyware. Tracking. Extensive databases. Sneakily active mics and cameras. SIM cards requiring phone numbers tied to government issued ID. Security cameras. Smart home. Facial recognition. Fingerprints. Been incarcerated? DNA.

They fingerprint your residence, and general location in the first day.

Then your kid has a friend over that sticks a password on it for the lols and doesn't know what it was

It's good for the common user who's happy to use all Google services and can remember (or has written down) their credentials.

It's absolutely useless for those out of the Google ecosystem

It's annoying through to disastrous for people supporting other peoples' phones

Assumed as much without opening article

What?

If you want security and at the same time want to be able to identify your device if stolen, just scratch your name into the back. Or paint it with a marker. Or whatever

This guy is lying.

What do you mean? The activation lock means people can't use a stolen iphone so long as the person who lost it doesn't remove it from their account. Maybe you could chop it up for some parts, but the phone is functionally useless as a phone.

Google has hardware they control. Other OEMs can choose to make it available. It's up to them to implement.