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Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

hey.paris

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Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#491

Post by bragr »

treesknees wrote: post #477
bragr wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>macOS doesn't require this Technically true but I tried using a mac without creating an Apple ID and gave up. You can't access the store without it so you are locked out of Mac apps that aren't installed by default, and all apps that only distribute through the store now.

Perhaps that's not a loss, because why would you want to depend on apps that you essentially need an Apple account to use? I've had great luck with finding apps with Homebrew.

Well I just stopped using a Mac. It's not worth jumping through hoops.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#492

Post by tonymet »

I back up regularly using Google Takeout and similar tools, but I don’t think it’s fair to shame this author . Even if you have backups , your recent and essential content and credentials will be locked out . 1% of your content is the most important

We all depend heavily on cloud storage and sso . Everything works fine until you are locked out .

And using them isn’t fully voluntary. They are necessary for collaboration . You end up using what your team uses .

You can try to be that “own cloud” snob but it only works if you live in a basement

Every normal person has content in Google , iCloud , OneDrive , Dropbox and maybe more. That’s 4+ single points of failure

You’re just not imaginative enough if you think you’re safe .

OPs only recourse is an insider or a lawyer

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#493

Post by vladms »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #274
x3sphere wrote: post #32

It's just insane that a gift card redemption can trigger this. What's the rationale? It would make more sense if they just locked the person out of redeeming gift cards or something, not the entire account. But reading horror stories like this is is why I only use the very bare minimum of any of these cloud services. Keep local copies of everything. For developer accounts, I always create them under a separate email…

Not only local copies but also at least own and use one device where you have your important data that is not on the same OS ecosystem as the other device(s) - also helps with things like 2FA, password manager, etc., if shit has hit the ceiling fan on the other device. In addition, I always suggest people to: - Not use big tech's cloud services - ever - But if you must, do not use many cloud services from just one pr…

The list is a bit overkill for the normal person. I would suggest just:

- Have a local backup (simple giving the storage prices)

- Pay for one email provider (less chance to ignore you)

- For important services (bank, etc.) always register also a telephone number / second email if possible (there is a low chance that both primary and secondary thing will be blocked at the same time)

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#494

Post by airstrike »

abustamam wrote: post #455
andai wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's definitely made me develop a do not trust any big corp mindset. I've been reading about Lovecraft's Old Ones. Apparently they have no ill will towards humans. They just sometimes cause harm without realizing it, while going about their business.

I watched an interview with Elon Musk a few years ago (circa 2018?). I'm no fan of him but he was asked about AGI and he kinda just said matter of factly, AI can view humanity as we view anthills. We don't really care about anthills, but if they're in the way of us building a neighborhood in an area then goodbye anthill. I'm not sure if I like that take because of how horrifying it is, but I found it very interesting…

People have been saying that for literal decades before Elon Musk said it.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#495

Post by flatter »

evanelias wrote: post #460
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“This isn’t just an email address; it is my core digital identity” If he doesn’t think like that, then why does he act like it?

[flagged]

Did you even read the article? "The only recent activity on my account was a recent attempt to redeem a $500 Apple Gift Card to pay for my 6TB iCloud+ storage plan" a 6TB plan is $29.99 monthly.. It's not farfetched to assume he purchased a $500 gift card so he could keep the subscription without worrying about it!

"The card was purchased from a major brick-and-mortar retailer (Australians, think Woolworths scale; Americans, think Walmart scale)" There's not much of a reason to assume someone else unaffiliated with the author bought this card, he mentions talking to the vendor and getting a replacement which means he has the receipt

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#496

Post by novoreorx »

nabla9 wrote: post #452
novoreorx wrote: post #386

If I were the person at Apple in charge of this kind of matter, I would ignore this case, just as I do for other regular people. Everyone should be equally not cared for by Apple. That's how Apple sucks in a way I can accept myself still using their product.

Agreed. If the only way to get your digital property back is a public plea to your Lord, that's called feudalism. Everyone should be treated fairly, not only those who can get their public pleas heard.

You just made it clear to me why I felt not resonated and a bit uncomfortable reading that article, despite I thought I should be. Because what I want to see is something straight like "fuck you Apple", not a begging and emphasis on how much the author has contributed to the megacorp.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#497

Post by macNchz »

stephen_g wrote: post #370
dnet wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See https://doctorow.medium.com/como-is-infosec-307f87004563 > This is the same failure mode of all security-through-obscurity. Secrecy means that bad guys are privy to defects in systems, while the people who those systems are supposed to defend are in the dark, and can have their defenses weaponized against them.

That’s a great article - explains what I haven’t fully thought through or quite been able to put into words but what I’ve always felt, because the “you can’t tell people the secret rules” with things like money laundering is treated by many as obvious, but has never sat right with me.

I disagree with this article—its premise relies too heavily on the oft repeated, oft misunderstood line “there is no security in obscurity.”

This concept is used to argue that obscurity shouldn’t be used at all as a defense mechanism, when really all it means is it shouldn’t be your only line of defense.

Obscuring aspects of a system can contribute to its overall functioning: it’s a filter for the laziest of adversaries, and it creates an imperative for more motivated ones to probe and explore to understand the obfuscation, creating signal and therefore opportunities to notice their behavior and intervene.

I think for anyone who has dealt firsthand with mitigating online fraud, hackers, spam, trolls, cheating etc, the idea of having completely transparent defense mechanisms is pretty much ludicrous.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#498

Post by spunker540 »

windexh8er wrote: post #397
Nevermark wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t a solution for many people. And in fact, a prohibition is never a solution, it is a reduction in solution options And this advice takes into account exactly zero aspects of the particular problems a given person may have to solve, besides “problems with Apple”, in a world where most people have “problems with X” for each of the few large ecosystems. Freedom of choice would mean for N choices, being able to…

But it is a solution. Apple being a poor stuard of their customers is indicative that people buying their hardware and software are not their priority. Apple support used to be stellar, they used to care about customers, they no longer do. Apple's ToS should be readily indicative of anyone using any of their products that Apple's perspective is that you don't own anything and they can do whatever they want with anyth…

Does Google have a better track record when it comes to arbitrarily locking people out of their digital lives?

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#499

Post by fn-mote »

dansmith1919 wrote: post #308
crossroadsguy wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only local copies but also at least own and use one device where you have your important data that is not on the same OS ecosystem as the other device(s) - also helps with things like 2FA, password manager, etc., if shit has hit the ceiling fan on the other device. In addition, I always suggest people to: - Not use big tech's cloud services - ever - But if you must, do not use many cloud services from just one pr…

How much free time do you think the average person has to learn and set all this up? “You’re giving these companies your data and then dare to be angry when you lose it? Just get a degree in computer science and host it yourself!!1! I am very smart”

Nobody believes this is right.

The question is: will you roll over and die without a fight for your rights?

At least you have time you are spending on HN that could be devoted to learning to fight. The fewer people that fight, the faster your rights disappear.

Re: Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

#500

Post by ho_schi »

immibis wrote: post #259
jasode wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's just insane that a gift card redemption can trigger this. It's also the buying of gift cards that can get Apple accounts locked: https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/r8b1lu/apple_will_pe... If enough of these horror stories are publicized, people will learn to never buy/redeem Apple gift cards because of the real possibility of account bans. - Don't give Apple gift cards to family and friends: You're potenti…

- Don't use Apple. Or Google.

Or Microsoft.

Stay as far away from BigIT as you can. Linux or BSD are there for many good reasons. This is another one.

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