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Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

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Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#141
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect there is nothing wrong as such ie the system is working as intended. The intention is either overzealous or broken. As for not suing them, I suspect that wouldn’t wash if you were deprived of property due to a software issue.

exactly. they already hit the revenue goals even with shitty quality. it's the only goal that motivates work and in a monopoly it's tied to market size only. what's a few thousand people per month losing all access to their data, if that is not even a blip on their revenue or revenue protections? if you're going to buy a new iphone, you're going to buy a new iphone. it doesn't matter the slightest if you read some ne…

People pay in average $1000 every 3 years ($27 per month). So if 1% people choose Android next time, Apple will lose 1% of 2 billion users x $1000 / 3 years = 7 billion dollars per year.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have no idea why I get these notifications, lol Perhaps so that someone who found your iphone unlocked can't just keep using it and your iCloud in perpetuity?

I think he means, what causes apple to trigger those notifications. I don’t remember ever seeing that prompt, at least not without myself doing some action to trigger it.

>I think he means, what causes apple to trigger those notifications

Yeah, that's what I tried to guess too. Like, maybe those are sent periodically?

Could be there's some heuristics like "logged in from a different city" or such, too.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#143
post #113

could be somewhat related, last week I had a successful login for my Apple ID from a location I didn't recognise (somewhere in central asia). I noticed because I got a prompt on my phone, which requested I allow (or disallow) the access. Since I'm pretty good about password hygiene and security, I of course changed my password immediately and force-signed out all my devices. That being said: if someone has a password…

>But if I were to apply very recent anecdotal data to this even then this is a meaningful conclusion I could draw. That being.....?

that an account database is being brute force checked with various leaked passwords, and accounts that are being brute forced are being locked.

Its a common problem that can cause denial of service to users, but failure to do anything can lead to account compromise.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#144
post #114
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Even though I paid for this home (laptop) and have all my things in it, I can totally buy another from another realtor if the current locks me out. So joke's on them, it's not exactly a walled garden"

We can all use hyperbole and carefully pick our narratives when we want. Example: I can live in this nice comfy condo for a sky high fee (Apple) or I can live in a rickety old shed I have to keep fixing for free so I don’t have to pay the ground rent (Linux). I’d rather live in the condo even if the lease runs out one day.

The analogy is all well and good, except missing the point we're discussing that happened to the parent:

It's not: "I’d rather live in the condo even if the lease runs out one day"

It's more like: "I’d rather live in the condo even if the realtor arbitrarily locks me out, even though I did pay for it"

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#146
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that most of the time people don't even know that not everything written in a contract might be valid in case of a legal dispute. However, once in a while we have nice things, such as requesting to be refunded the windows license https://sistemainoperativo.it/#:~:text=Come%20chiedere%20il%... ). Unfortunately it's in Italian, basically if you don't accept windows (and office) tos you can be refunded, almo…

I did that once, almost 20 years ago. Bought an IBM laptop that came with windows (there weren't any options w/o Windows back then, for consumers at least). I always planned to put Linux on it. Rejected the TOC. Made a meticulous image report that showed careful unboxing and setup. There was a line in the TOC that (from very vague memory) disallowed using the OS for a.o. nuclear power mgmt. I did work in energy back…

As of today, in Italy, you get refunded the average market price for a license and not the oem price (roughly ~20€),so depending on the windows version you get 40/80€ + if you have office, you get a few other bucks back, upto ~115€ for windows + office. And yeah, it's a bit easier today but companies still try to make it difficult on purpose, such as asking you to ship back the product, while you're not obliged to. I spent last hour reading the legal proceedings on the site I posted and lol, they're kinda all the same, you ask a refund, you get told to ship it back, you do the "messa in mora" (you legally tell the company to refund you), they tell you to ship, you say you're not obliged to, you're eventually refuned

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#147
post #94
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m so glad it’s illegal for me to sign away my right to sue in Europe https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/unfair-treat...

The truth though is that if a consumer right remains hardly enforceable and impractical to sue and get any real resolution from doing so, corporations can live with consumers retaining it...

I imagine this attitude of “even if we had laws protecting consumers they wouldn’t get used” is a big part of why Americans don’t have them. The European laws do get enforced, but of cause there is both room for and movement towards improving consumer protection.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#148
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Tailscale, NextCloud (files, pics, calendar, contacts), Podverse, Obsidian, Bitwarden (Vaultwarden), Home Assistant, ProtonMail, Signal, Element, …. If my iPhone (iCloud) goes down it’s just a node in the network with all my data still my own and available.

It will be great this set up can be commoditised so everyone can buy one for themselves/family.

You can add it the bucket of similar crap that nerds make when they don’t think to actually check if they’re building something that solves a problem that people actually want solved.

The reality is that if you go to any family BBQ and start going on about the importance of self-hosting, I - someone that’s been working with computers my whole life - am going to roll my eyes and not be all that interested in the conversation, let alone anyone else there (chances are they don’t want to talk about computers at all).

The reality is that these open-source / self-hosted solutions are, the vast majority of the time, harder to use and maintain. There are few things that sound less appealing to me than dealing with the realities of helping my family and friends with using any of that stuff.

This is all just some nerd’s out of touch pipe dream.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#149
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you can do this with considerable effort. But the moment you use OIDC with Apple ID there is a good chance you will lose many of the accounts created this way.

The effort is actually minimal. Just export the passwords occasionally and save it in an encrypted file. 30 seconds The issue is rather, that most people rely on these convenient services 100% and dont (want to) think about what happens in a bad case scenario.

“Save in an encrypted file”? Christ. We really need to draw a HUGE line between “hacker news user solutions” and “things that are practical for actual people to do”.

Re: Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

#150
post #20

Apple says there is nothing wrong.[1] When your identity provider has total control over your life, and you signed away your right to sue for damages, this is what happens. [1] https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

> Apple says there is nothing wrong.[1] My experience status pages (with Azure) is that they are a PR/legal mouthpiece. They only change once something becomes newsworthy.

Any change to the status page requires at least VP sign-off. They declare outage or a problem only when hiding it any longer becomes impossible.
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