Dateline iPod Entrapment

Did you catch the Dateline story on iPod thieves? The premise of the story was that Apple should be able to find stolen iPods because the thief would probably register the iPod so that they could access iTunes.

If you own an iPod, you already know that when you first buy it, you plug it into your computer and register it with Apple. Apple files the iPod's serial number and requests personal information like your name and address.

Then, each time you want to download or purchase a song online from iTunes, your computer communicates with a central database at Apple. If you buy a song, Apple requests credit card information.

And it's because of all that identifying information that some consumers are convinced iPods can be tracked if they're lost or stolen.

Since Apple is in the best position to track iPods, we called the company to see if it would work with us on a story that set out to answer whether a stolen iPod could be traced.

Apple declined.

Since Apple was interested in help, they decided to test if Apple could do it by providing a disc with the iPod so that the thief would have to register to use his iPod:

To simply demonstrate whether an iPod has the capability of being tracked, we'd create our own database -- just like Apple has.

We'd try to get basic information from whoever plugged it in, in this case from people the iPods didn't belong to.

How would we get the information? Instead of putting used iPods out as bait, we'd use new ones that were brand new in the box.

To a thief, they'd be exactly like the real thing.

Except for this: with a new iPod, the first thing you normally do is download Apple iTunes software, which allows you to buy and download music as well as provide basic information about the user to Apple.

To get our bait iPods to work, whoever takes them will have to install a disc. What they won't know is that when they click 'I Agree' on a licensing agreement that appears on-screen, they'll be consenting to provide some of the same kind of information they provide Apple to Dateline.

They left the iPod in a convertible in front of a school that was experiencing a high rate of iPod thefts (Berkeley High School), in an unattended shopping bag, in a tote bag (they turned in the tote bag and stole the iPod), on the table in the food court, etc. And of course people just took it. It was just sitting there so why not just take what you want? Why should we be surprised? Endgaget thought it was a no brainer as does this guy. The father of one of the teenagers who stole the iPod thought they "were unfairly tempting kids to take iPods." Teenagers have no morales, they just take what they want. We shouldn't expect more from them, right? A child takes the bag and hands it to his mom. Even a victim of iPod theft took the iPod that was sitting in a bag on top of a car. Her rationale?

Woman: well someone did it to me!

Chris Hansen: Somebody stole your iPod?

Woman: Yes.

Chris Hansen: So you figured you'd take somebody else's?

Woman: Well, I mean, it was sitting on top of a car, so, if I left it there someone else is going to take it.

Chris Hansen: So you don't see anything wrong with what you did?

Woman: Well, yeah, I mean I felt wrong when someone did it to me!

Chris Hansen: Then why would you do that to somebody else if you felt cheated when yours got ripped off?

Woman: Because it's a cruel world so everyone does it to everybody.

Chris Hansen: Does that make it right?

Woman: No. Not at all

Chris Hansen: If there's anything else you want to tell me…

Woman: Of course, I apologize, you know, and I didn't know that they could be tracked. And I felt bad when it happened to me..,

Then she does something we haven't seen before. She gives the iPod back.

Anyone still think that man is basically good?

But then again, not everyone took it. Some resisted the temptation. How shocking! Didn't they know that no one can resist an iPod just sitting there unattended?

They were able to find 12 of the 20 iPods through their registration process. They included in their report the news that Apple has just applied for a patent to try to deter theft:

Just recently came word from the U.S. Patent Office that Apple has applied for a new patent. In its application, Apple confirms that there is a “serious problem” with iPod theft and that iPod owners have been seriously injured or even murdered for their iPods. And the company has proposed an ingenious solution to the problem: essentially, you can't recharge the iPod or the new iPhone if you can't prove the device is yours when you hook it up to iTunes.

But this is a good point:

John Gruber, author of Daring Fireball, notes privacy concerns and potential hassles as vindictive people report as stolen all the iPods they gave as gifts to their ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, and ex-spouses. I can just hear the vindictive people chortling gleefully: "Try getting over me now that you can't listen to emo!"