If somebody has POSSESSION of the Mac, and either:
1. An Apple ID registered with the Mac
2. A proof of purchase
3. A court ruling establishing them as the owner.
Presume they are the owner.
Regarding state level actors, they are not interested in stealing people’s MacBooks, they are interested in stealing peoples Data. Removing the activation lock from a Mac != exposing the data on it. Regarding common thieves, see above.
If Apple isn’t confident that they can authenticate ownership, they have no business locking out Macs. It is really not as hard to authenticate ownership as you think though in cases where the person claiming ownership has possession of the Mac.
If somebody has POSSESSION of the Mac, and either:
1. An Apple ID registered with the Mac
2. A proof of purchase
3. A court ruling establishing them as the owner.
Presume they are the owner.
Regarding state level actors, they are not interested in stealing people’s MacBooks, they are interested in stealing peoples Data. Removing the activation lock from a Mac != exposing the data on it. Regarding common thieves, see above.
If Apple isn’t confident that they can authenticate ownership, they have no business locking out Macs. It is really not as hard to authenticate ownership as you think though in cases where the person claiming ownership has possession of the Mac.