Yesterday, Apple released updates for the iPhone and most of its other platforms. Once you update your iPhone to iOS 17.3, I recommend that you turn on Stolen Device Protection. That way, if someone steals your iPhone and also has learned your device passcode, there is a limit to how much damage they can cause to you. Here is how you turn on Stolen Device Protection and what it does.
To turn on Stolen Device Protection, go to your Settings app and tap on Face ID & Passcode. Scroll down until you see Stolen Device Protection. Simply tap the blue words Turn On Protection to turn it on. That's it.
Once you have this feature turned on, your iPhone will turn on some additional security requirements in certain situations. If your iPhone senses that you are away from a familiar location like your home or your work, the iPhone will require you to use Face ID or Touch ID to do certain functions such as accessing stored passwords and using credit cards.
Isn't this already true? Yes, but only to a certain extent. Without Stolen Device Protection, if Face ID doesn't work, you can instead enter your iPhone's passcode. But this means that if a thief has your iPhone and knows your passcode, it won't matter that Face ID and Touch ID will fail for the thief because he can instead use your code. Turning on Stolen Device Protection prevents the thief from using your passcode as a way to circumvent biometric authentication.
Additionally, with Stolen Device Protection turned on, there is a delay before your iPhone will let you perform certain actions such as change your Apple ID password. Currently, some thieves know that if they immediately change your password once they steal your iPhone, they can prevent you from using your Apple ID on another device to mark your iPhone as lost, which remotely locks it with a passcode to keep your device and information secure. Stolen Device Protection gives you some time (I believe it is one hour) to do this once your iPhone has been stolen—assuming that you realize soon enough that your iPhone was stolen.
There are some downsides to turning on Stolen Device Protection, but they seem pretty minor to me. For example, if you plan on using Apple Pay on your own iPhone but you are wearing a mask that isn't correctly detected by Face ID, you will no longer have the backup of entering your passcode. And it will take a little longer on those (rare) occasions when you really do want to change your Apple ID password.
A clever and determined criminal might be able to find a way to circumvent some of these measures, so turning on Stolen Device Protection is not a complete cure for stolen iPhone woes.
For example, Stolen Device Protection doesn't kick in when you are at what the iPhone considers a trusted location (your home or some other location where you are frequently located). And you cannot manually change trusted locations. So if a determined thief steals your iPhone at your own home and then uses your passcode to change your Apple ID password and run up charges on your credit card, Stolen Device Protection won't help you. But in many circumstances, such as when you are at a bar or restaurant, having this feature enabled can be the difference between you just losing your iPhone and you also losing funds from your bank account, getting charges on your credit card, and permanently losing all of your photos and videos because they are deleted from iCloud by the criminal. To me, these protections seem well worth the minor inconvenience of turning on Stolen Device Protection.
For more information on Stolen Device Protection, check out this page on the Apple website.