Apple Compensates Victim of iMessage Bug for Breach of Privacy

[*LTD*]

Originally Posted by brookshanes

The person probably got monetary compensation in addition to the iPod. No doubt if it took 6 weeks to get the messages turned off this customer has more anger than what an iPod can quash.

You're probably right. Good point.

[C00rDiNaT0r]

Originally Posted by TalonFlyer

EXACTLY!

If my iPhone is stolen, I should be able to file a police report then forward that report to Apple along with a request to wipe, disable and lock the phone.

Another idea would be to only allow a reset of the phone with your Apple ID and password. If Apple products failed to work after being stolen, they would not be stoled.

It's a slippery slope though, what if I sold my iPhone on craigslist, then file that police report?

[deannnnn]

I don't know if she really deserves compensation, but this is a serious problem that should have been addressed well before the release of iMessage.

[Blorzoga]

I'm sick and tired of all these crybabies blaming others for their mistakes. Customer K lost her phone...boo hoo. Deal with it. Call your friends. Tell them you lost your phone and that you aren't receiving their messages. Get a new phone. Don't always try to make someone else responsible for your mistakes. Apple didn't lose your phone...you did. Compensation from Apple? You must be joking.

[TurboMoses]

Originally Posted by *LTD*

She actually pushed Apple legal on this . . . she wanted $$$.

Wow.

"I battled Apple's legal department and all I got was this stupid iPod Touch" should be engraved on it.

[ABernardoJr]

Originally Posted by Blorzoga

I'm sick and tired of all these crybabies blaming others for their mistakes. Customer K lost her phone...boo hoo. Deal with it. Call your friends. Tell them you lost your phone and that you aren't receiving their messages. Get a new phone. Don't always try to make someone else responsible for your mistakes. Apple didn't lose your phone...you did. Compensation from Apple? You must be joking.

The phone was clearly stated to have been "stolen" quite a few times in the article. Should she have told the thief not to steal her phone? I don't imagine that going over particularly well.

[KoolKid]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

An ipod touch? That's so cheap of Apple!

[Oletros]

Originally Posted by Blorzoga

I'm sick and tired of all these crybabies blaming others for their mistakes. Customer K lost her phone...boo hoo. Deal with it. Call your friends. Tell them you lost your phone and that you aren't receiving their messages. Get a new phone. Don't always try to make someone else responsible for your mistakes. Apple didn't lose your phone...you did. Compensation from Apple? You must be joking.

Yap, if you lose your credit card and there is bug that forbids inactivate it you won't blame the bank but you for losing it

[*LTD*]

Originally Posted by TurboMoses

"I battled Apple's legal department and all I got was this stupid iPod Touch" should be engraved on it.

Hehe . . . well I didn't think she would go all the way to Apple legal, but I suppose it's only natural that she did.

[Blorzoga]

Originally Posted by ABernardoJr

The phone was clearly stated to have been "stolen" quite a few times in the article. Should she have told the thief not to steal her phone?

No, she should have accepted the consequences that come along with having ones iPhone stolen. If it was stolen from her home, she should seek "compensation" from her insurance carrier. Seems to me she was just looking for a handout.

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Originally Posted by Oletros

Yap, if you lose your credit card and there is bug that forbids inactivate it you won't blame the bank but you for losing it

Text messages <> money

[Maltz]

Originally Posted by C00rDiNaT0r

It's a slippery slope though, what if I sold my iPhone on craigslist, then file that police report?

Filing a false police report is a good way to end up in jail. Doing what you describe is a good way to get caught filing a false police report. lol

[ABernardoJr]

Originally Posted by Blorzoga

No, she should have accepted the consequences that come along with having ones iPhone stolen. If it was stolen from her home, she should seek "compensation" from her insurance carrier. Seems to me she was just looking for a handout.

I agree that handouts shouldn't just be given in all cases when it's unwarranted, I'm one of the last to say otherwise, but the issue wasn't that it was stolen in itself but that the have iMessage bug wasn't fixed in a timely manner. Maybe she was looking for a lot of money, which would make that distasteful, but it isn't clear how much she was expecting so I won't pass judgement on a hypothetical amount. But in this particular case it's not completely unreasonable to expect some compensation for a bug that was taken care of pretty late.

[ski1ski1]

Originally Posted by Blorzoga

I'm sick and tired of all these crybabies blaming others for their mistakes. Customer K lost her phone...boo hoo. Deal with it. Call your friends. Tell them you lost your phone and that you aren't receiving their messages. Get a new phone. Don't always try to make someone else responsible for your mistakes. Apple didn't lose your phone...you did. Compensation from Apple? You must be joking.

That wont fix this issue!! Even if the customer gets a new phone and deactivates the old sim card, iMessages will still be sent to the lost iphone. That is the issue. On all other phones, deactivating the sim card will prevent txt messages being received on the lost phone.

[jowie]

Originally Posted by JamesGorman

How can you not toggle on and off iMessages on a stolen phone? its not like the phone knows it was stolen

It should ask you to reconnect with an Apple ID and password if it detects a SIM card is replaced, removed or deactivated. Although it's true that if an iPod touch is stolen, the only solution is to remote wipe anyway.

[vics43]

There are some 'issues' with this story (as the story was told at least). Did User K have Find My iPhone activated? Did SHE Send a Remote Wipe command, or was that done by Apple? If it was Apple, I would think that if they could Send some kind of Command to the iPhone, they should also have been able to identify the Network Address of the network the stolen iPhone was operating on. Suspicious lack of credible information in this story...

If User K did NOT have Find My iPhone turned on (and thus lost the ability to send a Annoying Musical Tone and a Text Message to the stolen iPhones screen to dissuade the Thief from keeping the 'Haunted' iPhone, that particular iPhone User needs to 'learn' about her gadget a bit more before getting a new one). Not knowing the features and capabilities of your device is like leaving your car parked at the curb with the keys laying on the dash and a "STEAL ME! sign on the windshield!!

[JAT]

Originally Posted by Blorzoga

No, she should have accepted the consequences that come along with having ones iPhone stolen. If it was stolen from her home, she should seek "compensation" from her insurance carrier. Seems to me she was just looking for a handout.

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Text messages <> money

Seriously, man. Privacy is very valuable. Apple's message system is the one that screwed her privacy. The article says her point was:

She informed Apple Legal that she was troubled by the length of time that it took to prevent the iMessages from going to the stolen phone and wanted compensation for the extensive breach of privacy.

Not about the cost of the phone. Surely she handled that somehow, too.

[Daveoc64]

Originally Posted by ski1ski1

That wont fix this issue!! Even if the customer gets a new phone and deactivates the old sim card, iMessages will still be sent to the lost iphone. That is the issue. On all other phones, deactivating the sim card will prevent txt messages being received on the lost phone.

Indeed.

The problem is that iMessage has a design flaw that can result in your messages going to a device that you no longer have any control over.

There is no way for a user to stop messages going to an iOS device that they have lost/had stolen/broken/sold/given away without having that device in their possession.

Very few services would work in that way - certainly not one that verifies your number using an SMS message sent from your device.

"Find My iPhone" has its own flaws that mean it's really not suitable to rely on for remote wiping a device.

[blacktape242]

Originally Posted by *LTD*

She actually pushed Apple legal on this . . . she wanted $$$.

Wow.

I would have too!!!!

[acfusion29]

Originally Posted by d21mike

iMessage can use your email address as well as your phone number. Like FaceTime.

this makes a little more sense, but the article stated phone number.

Originally Posted by ski1ski1

Because unlike regular txt messages, iMessage is linked to the UDID of your phone, not not sim card. This is how it works even via wifi. The phone number or iTunes email address is used as an ID to send/receive iMessages. But there is a major design flaw. Apple uses to the sim card to verify the phone number for iMessage. But it only verifies the sim card upon initial iMessage activation. If the sim card is removed, deactivated, or replaced with a different sim, the Apple servers will still send iMessages to the phone via wifi. Or cellular data, if it has another valid sim card. Even one with a different number. This is because the iMessage phone number is linked on Apple's servers to the UDID of the phone, not the sim. This link on Apple's servers will remain until iMessage is manually deactivated in the phone's settings. Which is impossible if you lose your phone, or already sold it. Apple has known about this design flaw for over two months. I don't understand why Apple still has not fixed this major privacy issue.

still not making sense.

if i text you at 123-456-7890, then it CAN'T (physically cannot) go to your stolen phone as the sim card is not in that phone

[jowie]

Originally Posted by vics43

If User K did NOT have Find My iPhone turned on (and thus lost the ability to send a Annoying Musical Tone and a Text Message to the stolen iPhones screen to dissuade the Thief from keeping the 'Haunted' iPhone, that particular iPhone User needs to 'learn' about her gadget a bit more before getting a new one). Not knowing the features and capabilities of your device is like leaving your car parked at the curb with the keys laying on the dash and a "STEAL ME! sign on the windshield!!

A customer might buy an iPhone, sign up to iMessage and not realise that if Find My iPhone isn't switched on, then iMessage will continue to work even when the phone is stolen and SIM is blocked. I don't see Apple warning users that iMessage isn't protected unless you have Find My iPhone switched on.

At the end of the day, as others have said, there's a very simple solution for Apple to implement... The managing of iOS devices per Apple ID online. Find My iPhone isn't a foolproof way of sorting the problem, whereas managing iOS devices online is.

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Originally Posted by acfusion29

if i text you at 123-456-7890, then it CAN'T (physically cannot) go to your stolen phone as the sim card is not in that phone

But iMessage isn't using the cellular data network to validate itself... It's using the UDID, or Unique Device IDentifier. Once it's paired with that device, even if you use a different SIM or no SIM altogether, it will send messages via WiFi (or cellular data through any SIM), for as long as you are still logged in to that phone through an Apple ID.

[IbisDoc]

An iPod touch for all of that? LOL, the spirit of Steve Jobs is alive and well.

[mutantteenager]

Originally Posted by KoolKid

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

An ipod touch? That's so cheap of Apple!

Agreed. They've seem to have got her to agree to anonimity too. Personally, I would have taken it to the press and then she might have seen a bit more from Apple sooner....

[ski1ski1]

Originally Posted by acfusion29

still not making sense.

if i text you at 123-456-7890, then it CAN'T (physically cannot) go to your stolen phone as the sim card is not in that phone

Normal txt messages is sent/received only via the cellular voice portion of the network. Which is tied to a specific valid sim card with that number. iMessages is sent/received via the internet. And the iPhone sends/receives iMessages via either wifi or the data portion of the cellular connection. Apple's servers have the link between the phone number and the UDID of the phone. Not the sim card.

[Swift]

Originally Posted by IzzyJG99

....Breach of privacy, a major thing in the eyes of many Judges, and she gets paid off with an iPod Touch? I'd honestly want financial compensation for this if it happened to me.

At last! A documented sighting of a trivial lawsuit! I'd say an iPod Touch - maybe she didn't want to pay the vig every month, or maybe she had another iPhone anyway -- would be about the size of the tort here.

Apple was in good faith. This was new software with an unanticipated outcome in a particular circumstance. The software honchos got in touch with her. They delivered the fix. It took awhile.

[darkwolf2]

Originally Posted by OrangeSVTguy

If apple was able to "push" code, then they should have disabled the phone completely then. Then the stolen iPhone black market would seize to exist.

By "pushed code" I'm assuming they just dropped the record linking the UDID to the customer's account from the iMessage DB.

Either that, or performed a "Remote Wipe" as you would from Find My iPhone. (Which I'm assuming she did not have activated.)