Apple Compensates Victim of iMessage Bug for Breach of Privacy

Such a simple thing to fix, and yet weeks, if not months, after hearing the first reports of this bug it is not fixed. This is what I don't understand - Apple makes these wonderful products but they all have bugs and problems with software as per the outcome of any human activity. Yet Apple don't seem to have an A-team working on fixing obvious problems.

Don't believe me? Try using MacOSX 10.7.3 to open a file with a very long file name. I bet a dime against a doughnut that the name will be clipped in the open dialog box. You can right click on the frame and fix this, but is there any preference setting that permanently enables seeing the whole file name? There ain't, which is particularly frustrating if you have a 27" screen with LOTS of real estate....

CobraPA said:

The MacRumors article seems kind of misleading about how to fix the problem. They aren't suggesting you toggle IMessage on and off on the stolen device, but on another device you have in your possession. When you toggle it, it prompts you for your apple password again and links iMessage to the device you just toggled. This prevents future messages from going to the stolen device, sending them instead to the device you just linked.

Click to expand...

My understanding is that this doesn't work...

Phazer

CobraPA said:

The MacRumors article seems kind of misleading about how to fix the problem. They aren't suggesting you toggle IMessage on and off on the stolen device, but on another device you have in your possession. When you toggle it, it prompts you for your apple password again and links iMessage to the device you just toggled. This prevents future messages from going to the stolen device, sending them instead to the device you just linked.

Click to expand...

You are confused on how iMessage works. What you suggest only reestablish the link on Apple's servers for iMessage to your new phone. The link on Apple's servers to you old phone via the phone number still remains. This is the issue! Apple designed iMessage so that multiple devices can send/receive iMessages with the same id.

Same problem...

I had my iPhone 4S stolen two weeks ago - the battery was dead and the phone had still not come online by the time I'd reported it to O2, so the 'Remote Wipe' I'd requested never happened, and the phone seemed to be disconnected from my iCloud account (it was permanently offline).

During this time, iMessages from my friends were showing as delivered, which was somewhat alarming.

Today, I got a new iPhone 4S and updated it from my iCloud backup... as it came to downloading apps, I was alarmed to see not one but two Apple ID e-mail addresses used to download apps that were not mine, and were certainly never used on my phone whilst I had it. I can only assume these belong to the people who now have my stolen phone.

Obviously I'm going to try talking to Apple about this, however I just wondered if anyone else had had a similar experience to this? It's really rather worrying I feel!

iPod Touch as compensation eh? I wonder how many pieces of legal docments she had to sign before that arrived at her door.

I hope it was a 64gb at least!

jamesnajera said:

So what are the exact steps I need to do before I sell my iPhone 4 when the iPhone 5 comes out?

Is it remove SIM, turn off iMessage, restore iPhone, turn on iMessage with no SIM?

I think Apple will need to provide detailed instructions on this, because this will be a big issue when the new iPhone comes out.

Click to expand...

I have tried different combinations of steps in preparing to sell my 3GS. After removing SIM, turning iMessage off, restoring phone, you can't check if it really worked. That's because the phone now thinks its new and requires you to insert a SIM to activate it. But if I insert a SIM I'm afraid it will once again link iMessage with that phone. So for now I've decided not to sell the 3GS, just in case.

vrDrew said:

Have you tried simply NOT sending text messages to a phone you and your wife know is stolen? Or is that too simple of an answer?

Click to expand...

Have you simply tried READING the context of the thread??? FAIL.

joeshmo2010 said:

Wouldnt someone who steals an iPhone want to restore it anyway to get rid of the other persons stuff? I guess thieves really must be dumber than I thought.

Click to expand...

It still comes to the stolen/missing device after it is restored.

acfusion29 said:

this story makes absolutely no sense to me..




if her sim card is deactivated, that means her phone number is no longer associated with the sim card. how are messages being sent to the device?

Click to expand...

It is actually pretty simple. Once iMessage is activated, it uses UDID and NOT a phone number between the sender and the receiver. If you sent me iMessage to my phone once, the second time my phone UDID is used to address the message and not my phone number. So SIM or not, I will get it. MInd iMessage is supported on SIM-less devices.

this is pretty scary stuff.

I have my iPhone passcode locked, because if it is stolen (touch wood it isn't) the thief couldn't access the phones information and if remote wipe didn't work they would have to restore the phone (therefore erasing the data)

but because of this bug if the thief restores it (by remote wipe or not), erasing the data, they would still receive my iMessages and because the phone would then not be passcoded they would actually be able to read all of them?

luckily I have read this in time and have totally turned off iMessage, as a just-in-case, better to be safe than sorry.

but it is impossible to deny that this is a crazy situation, apple need to fix this and fast

perhaps more coverage of this in mainstream news would force apple to correct their own long-known-about security bug

mores said:

There are two issues with this case.
First: the iMessage bug. This definately needs to be sorted out, and if Apple is unwilling to comment, the lady has every right to keep pushing, point a finger and cry "Bad Apple!".

Then there's the financial compensation that most of you here keep supporting. The Holyness of your privacy, and how dare anyone else read your texts.
If you were so concerned about privacy you wouldn't yak on the phone, in public, every chance you get. I know nearly everything of the people around me. What they had for breakfast, when they need to pick up their kid, what sex positions they tried out last night and what an ******* their boss is. I can listen in to phone calls thanks to cranked up hands-free sets in cars. I can even read texts, emails and websites that the people around me read, so how is it that now, all of a sudden, your privacy is so important you expect a company that provides you with a FREE service (as opposed to SMS) to pay for something you do voluntarily all the time?

I think the free iPod Touch is a nice gesture that should be appreciated, not dismissed.

Click to expand...

So, your premise is that everyone in this thread flaunts their private matters in front of anyone that happens to be around? You may have us confused with the morons of the world.

mores said:

There are two issues with this case.
First: the iMessage bug. This definately needs to be sorted out, and if Apple is unwilling to comment, the lady has every right to keep pushing, point a finger and cry "Bad Apple!".

Then there's the financial compensation that most of you here keep supporting. The Holyness of your privacy, and how dare anyone else read your texts.
If you were so concerned about privacy you wouldn't yak on the phone, in public, every chance you get. I know nearly everything of the people around me. What they had for breakfast, when they need to pick up their kid, what sex positions they tried out last night and what an ******* their boss is. I can listen in to phone calls thanks to cranked up hands-free sets in cars. I can even read texts, emails and websites that the people around me read, so how is it that now, all of a sudden, your privacy is so important you expect a company that provides you with a FREE service (as opposed to SMS) to pay for something you do voluntarily all the time?

I think the free iPod Touch is a nice gesture that should be appreciated, not dismissed.

Click to expand...

You fail to understand there is a difference in between privacy you control and privacy you don't control.

If those people do the things you mention and let you read their mail, let you see what sites you surf to or let you know what conversations they have they know it is not that important for somebody else to know.
If they want them to be a "secret" they would not act the way they do and go somewhere else where they have privacy.

But now Apple F*&ks up they don't control that bit, they don't know that their privacy is compromised.

Example, you send an invitation password to a site with privacy photo's without knowing other's will get.

Kind of worrying, but I assume this is a bug that'll be ironed out in the next update.

It's a bit of a slip up on Apples end, but the fact that they worked closely with the victim to resolve is the issue is good. As for the iPod touch as compensation, it was a nice gesture. If the victim really wanted though, she probably could have pushed that up to an iPad (though of course Apple probably aren't really obligated to offer up anything). Oh well, hopefully at least her iPhone was insured!

Tsuchiya said:

Kind of worrying, but I assume this is a bug that'll be ironed out in the next update.

Click to expand...

Apple has known about this issue for at least 2 months. Obviously this security/privacy issue is not very important to them to fix in a timely matter. Apple still has not publicly announced this is a flaw, or warn their customers about this issue.

Blorzoga said:

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.

Click to expand...

Are you kidding me? So now she's supposed to not be able to get text messages just to compensate for the fact apple can't get their programming straight so that imessages don't go to the wrong phone?! This is her fault because she wants to be able to receive her text messages?

Yes, Apple is very much responsible here. And yes, it is ridiculous to tell her the solution is to tell her friends to stop texting her. She should be able to receive texts.

You're the type that blames the person whose phone was stolen out of their pocket when they get robbed, aren't you?

So can we contact Apple and have them see your current mobile device and un-link or send the code to any other mobile device that is no longer yours? I thought about doing this to be on the safe side.

It defies logic how organizations react to the theft of property. If you stole an iPhone, Apple can tell what the serial number is and even where it is. There have been reports of people with stolen iPhones that are broken exchanging them at an Apple store. With the full knowledge that the phone had been stolen. Apple's policy is that they are not in law enforcement and don't want to deal with the issue. So, don't expect Apple to help you catch the person who stole your phone.

There is some logic in this. For example, what if I bought a phone from Craig's list that was stolen and tried to get service at an Apple store? Do you want Geniuses to be detaining a customer while the cops show up? And if it was the thief do you want to endanger employees? And then what do you charge the person with? Receiving stolen property? How do you prove that the person was or wasn't the thief and how do you prove that they knowingly received stolen goods?

Lest you think that Apple's response is unreasonable, let me tell you a story. My son had his laptop stolen out of our van while my wife was in the grocery store. We filed a police report. We had installed software that blocked sites we didn't want our son to visit. This software could be managed remotely. So we immediately modified it so that it would report accessing any site. Within a day we got a report that the computer had accessed a website. The report included the IP address that it was assigned. We researched and found the ISP that had that block and got it down to a general location. At the time we lived in Seattle and a day later the laptop was being used in Portland.

So we told the Seattle police about it. Do you know what they did? Nothing. I did all their work for them and they still couldn't be bothered with trying to catch the thief. They would have to contact the Portland police and they would have to contact the ISP and blah blah... It was more work than just pulling over motorists and writing tickets.

I thought it was pretty likely that this was an organized ring because of the distance involved. But, if you think your local Barney Fifes are going to chase down a stolen item, you are in dream land.

Apple could permanently disable every stolen iPhone. They could provide GPS coordinates to police. But it's not going to happen. I think it sucks, but that's reality.

tigress666 said:

Are you kidding me? So now she's supposed to not be able to get text messages just to compensate for the fact apple can't get their programming straight so that imessages don't go to the wrong phone?! This is her fault because she wants to be able to receive her text messages?

Yes, Apple is very much responsible here. And yes, it is ridiculous to tell her the solution is to tell her friends to stop texting her. She should be able to receive texts.

You're the type that blames the person whose phone was stolen out of their pocket when they get robbed, aren't you?

Click to expand...

Stolen out of her pocket? Did you have the police report? And where did it say she couldn't get her text messages?

Blorzoga said:

Stolen out of her pocket? Did you have the police report? And where did it say she couldn't get her text messages?

Click to expand...

My point went right over your head (I wasn't saying that was what happend to her. I was saying you were being ridiculous).

Let me make it more obvious (I was trying to avoid this analogy). You're the type that blames the woman when she gets raped, aren't you? (The point being is you are just unreasonable and will just blame the victim no matter what).

As for not getting her text messages, you are asking her to tell her friends not to text message her, that it's her fault for not wanting to do that. Which means if she does that, she can't get her text messages!!!! Are you that dense?!

I have this problem and it's a right pain. 3 iPhones and 1 iPad share an apple id.

1 iphone was wiped after having my sim in and then had a different sim put in it. All 3 iPhones imessaged independently without any issues.

Then I activated iMessage on a 3G iPad and from that moment on there was a lot of cross messages. Within an hour I removed the e-mail from iPad iMessage and deactivated iMessage on all 3 phones and the iPad.

1 iPhone reactivated iMessage and worked ok.

The other two had iMessage re-activated like 4 months later and within an hour it was evident the messages were cross sent again. iMessage turned off on these two phones again.

2 of the 3 phones need iMessage on them to replace texting abroad. I have been told the only fix is to create all separate iTunes logins and/or wipe all devices and start again.

deannnnn said:

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.

Click to expand...

Yeah, she didn't really take anybody's good advice. If I was Apple I wouldn't have given her compensation for the fact that she didn't listen to my techs. There was a solution to a problem that she didn't take, to the best of my knowledge and understanding.

*LTD* said:

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

Wow.

Click to expand...

Can you imagine how much mental anguish something like this can cause? Not to mention all the time lost trying to resolve this and the fact that her privacy was compromised. You're damn right she deserves some form of compensation, more than she got.

Has this been fixed in iOS6?

I sold my old iPhone and now I'm kinda worried.

Hello,

I am apple customer k, I would like to say I had placed a complaint with the privacy commissionaire of Canada and today I have received confirmation from them as well as Apple that this issue was resolved as part of iOS 6. Also I would like to make it known I did not receive any other compensation than the ipod touch for this issue as that was not my main concern.