I’m doing a start-up right now that focuses on tracking systems for cellular devices.
And believe me, if Apple didn’t want Uber to linger, Apple wouldn’t allow Uber to linger.
And Apple can unlock phones just fine. That whole FBI thing was a sham.
The thing is they don’t want people to know that they can do these things. They don’t want the precedent.
How is recording the phone’s IMEI a fraud detection maneuver?
No, Apple cannot. They do not have the 256 bit AES encryption key to the data. It is impossible for them to unlock a modern iPhone without it. They could unlock iPhones prior to the iPhone 5s, but not after.
As I just pointed out, Apps are sandboxed in modern iOS and prevented from lingering around after being deleted. This is some NYT reporter's pipe dream that the ability to track lingered after the app was deleted or the iPhone was reset to factory settings.
“And believe me, if Apple didn’t want Uber to linger, Apple wouldn’t allow Uber to linger.”
Not if they track the data from outside the phone. IMEI, etc. Not hard.