Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
This is one of the problems with our world today. As soon as something goes wrong, there's a line of people waiting to accuse you of negligence and malice. It's a wonder anyone actually gets ahead in the world today.

You did a great job critiquing many people here on MacRumors too. The same thing happens every day here in the forums.
 
The FaceTime eavesdropping bug was perhaps one of the most serious issues that have affected Apple products in recent history.

Yes, let’s not forget this feature which lets anyone log into an admin account using the username "root" with no password when HighSierra was released.
 
Sure seems like Williams isn't a stellar lawyer. I'd expect a lawyer to be familiar with the requirements set forth in the law books for a claim to be considered by the court. This ruling basically says he had nothing. Read the whole thing if you have time, it disassembles every one of his claims for lack of any references to relevant facts. At best this seems like a publicity stunt.
I think he went to Pennypacker university:) Apple would have just written it off!!!
 
The developers who speak up here, and call it coding error should rethink their profession.
This was not a coding error, it was a huge thing happened at tim privacy's company, there must be consequences.

Cant happen that someone spys at You because apple is to lazy or incompetent for testing a feature
 
The developers who speak up here, and call it coding error should rethink their profession.
This was not a coding error, it was a huge thing happened at tim privacy's company, there must be consequences.

Cant happen that someone spys at You because apple is to lazy or incompetent for testing a feature
So to extend that thought, anybody who has ever made a mistake on the job should rethink their profession? Don't think so, part of what makes a person (and organization) better is being able to incorporate past mistakes as a learning lessons. Most people, imo, who are great at what they do have the battle scars to prove they tried.

So in my own opinion, these people should not rethink their profession.
 
  • Like
Reactions: digitalexplr
Your analysis of Apple's statement makes no sense. All such batteries age to some extent, but the rate that they age varies. There's a current threshold below which the device will not operate. If some batteries age faster than others, then for a given amount of time, some batteries will still be able to reach the threshold, and some won't. Do you interpret Apple's statement as implying all such batteries age at the same rate?

It's not the electrical current threshold at which the batteries no longer operate that Apple referenced in their statement but instead the threshold at which they start to trigger unexpected shutdowns at peak loads.
 
The developers who speak up here, and call it coding error should rethink their profession.
This was not a coding error, it was a huge thing happened at tim privacy's company, there must be consequences.

Cant happen that someone spys at You because apple is to lazy or incompetent for testing a feature

As a professional developer, and feeling pretty insulted by your attitude, I'd say that by the same rule, anyone whose English is as bad as yours should stop posting comments here. "it was a huge thing happened at tim privacy's company" doesn't even make any sense. I suppose the eternal rule applies here: Anything is easy if you're not the one who has to do it.
[doublepost=1557585678][/doublepost]
Yet no phones other than iPhone 6 series had widespread reports of shutdowns, so your claim has no merit.
Android users expect rubbish. Their phone has shutdowns, they just shrug their shoulders and get on with their lives. iPhone users complain.
[doublepost=1557585934][/doublepost]
The odds of winning or reaching a settlement in a lawsuit are far greater than a lottery. If this lawyer had been a little patient and done his homework before rushing off to file a suit, he would have walked away with a nice chunk of change. No software can be perfect. Legitimate companies have to carry hefty insurance to protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits or gold diggers.
He wouldn't. He would have had to show actual damages. The claim that someone listened in to a call between him and a client is completely unsubstantiated. Not a shred of evidence. Even if someone had listened in, he would have had to show damages. But the lawyer doesn't suffer damages in this situation - the client _might_.
[doublepost=1557586033][/doublepost]
Like a missing fetch? Oh, was I suppose to fetch data?
Your question doesn't make any sense to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: digitalexplr
It's not the electrical current threshold at which the batteries no longer operate that Apple referenced in their statement but instead the threshold at which they start to trigger unexpected shutdowns at peak loads.
All batteries age and die. Apple had a $29 sales in batteries, as a goodwill (IMO) gesture so customers could get extra life from their phones.
 
Apple did not "win" the lawsuit. The court dismissed the complaint on a "without prejudice" basis. For non-lawyers, that means that plaintiff's complaint had defects, but he's allowed to correct those defects and re-file.

A "win" would be a dismissal with prejudice. That's not what happened here.

You're nitpicking.This is a win in every practical sense.

In a civil case, a judge is rarely going to dismiss a case with prejudice, because it is usually done after the judge makes a final determination of the facts of the case presented. Yes, the plaintiff theoretically could correct and refile, but as the judge points out, those defects are so glaring that they don't even meet the minimal bar to trigger consideration by the judge/jury.
[doublepost=1557590741][/doublepost]
Explain.

Because as I see it, the legal worked exactly how it is supposed to.

Person A has a grievance against person B.

Person A petitions the court for restitution from person B.

Person A wins or loses if they present their case successfully.


What most people are upset about is that the American legal system, imperfect, but probably the overall finest in the world, has the unintentional, but serious problem of encouraging frivolous law suits. This happens because, unlike the English system where the "loser pays," there is little deterrence to unscrupulous lawyers filing lawsuits that innocent people have to incur enormous costs to defend. Thus, this encourages litigants to file simply to force people to choose from the incurring the time and expense, which may be ruinous, or settling.

The problem is exacerbated due to the enormous oversupply of attorneys as law schools have churned out lawyers without regard to supply and demand. Some, not all by any means, of these lawyers then survive by offering, even soliciting, clients by taking on cases "for free," with the hope of getting 33 to 40% of any settlement merely by filing an action, however meritorious.

The other problem often discussed here are "patent trolls," but that's another issue :)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: digitalexplr
The developers who speak up here, and call it coding error should rethink their profession.
This was not a coding error, it was a huge thing happened at tim privacy's company, there must be consequences.

Cant happen that someone spys at You because apple is to lazy or incompetent for testing a feature

Nothing like proving you don’t know anything about writing code. Why don’t you leave that discussion to those of us who actually do write code?

I already gave one example. Here’s a couple more (as simple as I can):


A developer has debugging/testing code in FaceTime. All it takes to activate this code is for a flag to be set to true. The developer should have removed this code for the final build, but left it in by mistake.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem as the code wouldn’t be run since the flag wouldn’t be set. But a bug in another section of code mistakenly sets this flag, running code that shouldn’t be there, causing the FaceTime issue. The bug could be the user adding themselves back to a group call before the person answers (which is how this issue started).

This code doesn’t have to be for debugging. It could also have been for a new feature Apple is working on - the ability for parents to activate FaceTime on kids devices remotely to check up on them. Or for a device owner to activate FaceTime remotely on their stolen iPhone to try and get clues to recover it. Except a bug allowed this feature to activate for normal users.


Another issue is when developers are writing code and initially start their project. Often you will have a set of subroutines to perform various functions. At the beginning these routines are often placeholders that you fill in later. Often when creating such a routine you only code what you need to get it working, with the idea that you can go back and “clean up” your code later on and make it more robust (like adding in error checking). The problem is if a piece of code is working fine and never causing a problem you tend to forget about it. This can carry on to the point that a poorly written piece of code that never caused a problem ends up in the final build. Only then, when it’s stress tested by a large number of regular users (who always do things they’re not supposed to) do bugs appear.



People like to think developers never make mistakes or wouldn’t do anything like the “rookie” examples I gave. But it happens. Nothing nefarious at all - just simple (and common) mistakes a lot of developers make.
 
Of course.
Jussie Smollett and Laurie Loughlin are also innocent.
And Harvey Weinstein is still a free man.

So unwanted software bug is on a same level as sexually assaulting actresses. Well done you.

And yes, this is sarcasm for you and those people who clicked LIKE on your comment.

And to finish in a good spirit, it is a lovely sunny day, so grilling is in order (probably me as a main course)
 
Last edited:
Nothing like proving you don’t know anything about writing code. Why don’t you leave that discussion to those of us who actually do write code?


I already gave one example. Here’s a couple more (as simple as I can):


A developer has debugging/testing code in FaceTime. All it takes to activate this code is for a flag to be set to true. The developer should have removed this code for the final build, but left it in by mistake.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem as the code wouldn’t be run since the flag wouldn’t be set. But a bug in another section of code mistakenly sets this flag, running code that shouldn’t be there, causing the FaceTime issue. The bug could be the user adding themselves back to a group call before the person answers (which is how this issue started).

This code doesn’t have to be for debugging. It could also have been for a new feature Apple is working on - the ability for parents to activate FaceTime on kids devices remotely to check up on them. Or for a device owner to activate FaceTime remotely on their stolen iPhone to try and get clues to recover it. Except a bug allowed this feature to activate for normal users.


Another issue is when developers are writing code and initially start their project. Often you will have a set of subroutines to perform various functions. At the beginning these routines are often placeholders that you fill in later. Often when creating such a routine you only code what you need to get it working, with the idea that you can go back and “clean up” your code later on and make it more robust (like adding in error checking). The problem is if a piece of code is working fine and never causing a problem you tend to forget about it. This can carry on to the point that a poorly written piece of code that never caused a problem ends up in the final build. Only then, when it’s stress tested by a large number of regular users (who always do things they’re not supposed to) do bugs appear.


People like to think developers never make mistakes or wouldn’t do anything like the “rookie” examples I gave. But it happens. Nothing nefarious at all - just simple (and common) mistakes a lot of developers make.

We all fear that this is the kind of coding that lead to this incredible remote spying bug in Group Facetime in the first place. And everybody who does professional software development would be frightened if the uncoordinated approach you just tried to promote as "typical" was the actual standard.

No folks, that‘s not how software development is typically done, even if it might describe how that Facetime bug came to be. There exists well-proven patterns for software security and release management, and the fear that Apple just does not adhere to them, proven by that totally unnecessary Facetime remote bug, is the actual thing to discuss.

Trying to promote a small company’s quick hack coding strategies as the standard for a corporation like Apple that controls millions of devices through their software does not help to prevent these kind of problems.
 
We all fear that this is the kind of coding that lead to this incredible remote spying bug in Group Facetime in the first place. And everybody who does professional software development would be frightened if the uncoordinated approach you just tried to promote as "typical" was the actual standard.

No folks, that‘s not how software development is typically done, even if it might describe how that Facetime bug came to be. There exists well-proven patterns for software security and release management, and the fear that Apple just does not adhere to them, proven by that totally unnecessary Facetime remote bug, is the actual thing to discuss.

Trying to promote a small company’s quick hack coding strategies as the standard for a corporation like Apple that controls millions of devices through their software does not help to prevent these kind of problems.
You’re right of course. But if it were as easy as you suggest windows wouldn’t have 25 year old legacy vulnerabilities.

So folks, while **** happens with large scale development it ain’t easy to keep them bugs out. But I do agree there are processes and procedures.
 
  • Like
Reactions: digitalexplr
You’re right of course. But if it were as easy as you suggest windows wouldn’t have 25 year old legacy vulnerabilities.

So folks, while **** happens with large scale development it ain’t easy to keep them bugs out. But I do agree there are processes and procedures.

Never said it‘s easy. It‘s annoying work and nobody (directly) loves you for that. Especially it‘s not about the "we‘re all so creative" part, but about the one that makes the creative work a valuable product. It‘s about discipline, patterns that have to be implemented and checked on a regular basis, and books and papers that have to be read.

I would not expect any three guy software company to be able to implement all that. But if you‘re doing systems engineering you usually are well paid for that work and can afford the effort. Apple definitively has the means to so, still we saw (and heard from insiders recently) that the current company culture does not exactly support sticking to that kind of annoying work at the moment.

Of course you will always have bugs. But like in other engineering areas you usually build in safeguards that don‘t let a single bug perforate the whole thing nor larger parts. And those safeguards cost you. Time, personnel, external skills and audits. Apple has to do so for their HW products, since the FCC demands these quality checks and certificates. They should adhere to similar quality measures for their software, without having to be forced by the government.
 
Apple... the ones who believe in privacy, unless it’s their buggy software allowing anyone to spy on you....

I hope the plaintiff can get their act together and produce a decent case against Apple.

[doublepost=1557519540][/doublepost]

Just wondering, do you have the same opinion when the company involved is not Apple? Curious as many Apple fans don’t have that same opinion of anyone else who isn’t Apple..
Yes. I do. I think from a developer's perspective.
 
While the bug was nasty, it did not warrant a lawsuit. He was just looking to get rich quick.
I think you would feel differently if you and your family lost everything due to its abuse. We were spied on in our home More than 21 times over a 3 week period by my now previous employer. Kinda makes you feel disgusting and violated in a sexual assault kind of way when they rub your face in how they watched and heard you have sex with your wife and you recall the times you were reading the news on your phone while in the bathroom or setting your phone down before bathing or checking your calls as you towel off. After they fire you because they hear and see your closed door/private life, family discussions with children, your married life arguments over money/bills, love spats/concerns and slander you all over town because they heard your plans for the future and if the next 10 years includes them as the previous 10yrs you had the job did, the bug seems a little nastier. It is alot nastier after they project you as a thief to everyone you used to have business/professional relationships with and give a heads up to the other local companies in your field after suddenly forcing you into a non compete before they “get you back”. A little nastier again when your home is foreclosed on and you get sued twice for the bills you now cant pay. I have had apple products since 07 and stuck with them solely for the security of them, yeah so nastier again when you realize your stupid too. Dont get me started on the fictional things people can invent when they hear and see pieces of things. Had this not happened i would still have my job and our family would have our home. My 6 yo wouldnt have paranoia issues that people are listening and all 4 of our children would still have their future. Who exactly does someone think they are to feel they are allowed to spy in someones home, on a device that doesnt belong to them over a connection they do not pay for or to belittle that loss because it didnt affect you. Imagine your camera and mic are on for the next 3 or more weeks and see if you feel the same. Its like a hit and run accident, they got out and said that dent was already there and that other spot will buff out and drove off.
[doublepost=1567702994][/doublepost]
Developers are usually told what their software is supposed to do, and that's what they develop, and that's what their code does, and that's what your code review checks. And then the testing checks that it indeed does what it is supposed to do, and you think it's fine.

If two people are in a Facetime call, a third one is supposed to be able to join the call (if the two agree, and not without them noticing). That's what went wrong, someone managed to join a call without the others being asked and noticing. There was no code that _did_ this. There was nothing wrong with the code that was there. The problem was that some code was _missing_ to prevent this from happening. That's much harder to prevent.
If a mechanic says your brakes should work but they dont, are you no longer liable for the car you hit and the people in it that you hurt or killed? You are as well as the mechanic. If installed and bled correctly they will work but the car is test driven to ensure they are working properly and if not rechecked and re bled and corrected then test driven again to ensure safety and function. You could be lazy and just slap it together like a fast food hamburger then blame-shift when they fail because the you followed the instructions and they should have worked or you could test them forward, reverse, fast, slow, hard and soft twice to ensure your work and justify the trust someone placed in you to do the job.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Rocketman
I think you would feel differently if you and your family lost everything due to its abuse. We were spied on in our home More than 21 times over a 3 week period by my now previous employer. Kinda makes you feel disgusting and violated in a sexual assault kind of way when they rub your face in how they watched and heard you have sex with your wife and you recall the times you were reading the news on your phone while in the bathroom or setting your phone down before bathing or checking your calls as you towel off. After they fire you because they hear and see your closed door/private life, family discussions with children, your married life arguments over money/bills, love spats/concerns and slander you all over town because they heard your plans for the future and if the next 10 years includes them as the previous 10yrs you had the job did, the bug seems a little nastier. It is alot nastier after they project you as a thief to everyone you used to have business/professional relationships with and give a heads up to the other local companies in your field after suddenly forcing you into a non compete before they “get you back”. A little nastier again when your home is foreclosed on and you get sued twice for the bills you now cant pay. I have had apple products since 07 and stuck with them solely for the security of them, yeah so nastier again when you realize your stupid too. Dont get me started on the fictional things people can invent when they hear and see pieces of things. Had this not happened i would still have my job and our family would have our home. My 6 yo wouldnt have paranoia issues that people are listening and all 4 of our children would still have their future. Who exactly does someone think they are to feel they are allowed to spy in someones home, on a device that doesnt belong to them over a connection they do not pay for or to belittle that loss because it didnt affect you. Imagine your camera and mic are on for the next 3 or more weeks and see if you feel the same. Its like a hit and run accident, they got out and said that dent was already there and that other spot will buff out and drove off.
[doublepost=1567702994][/doublepost]
If a mechanic says your brakes should work but they dont, are you no longer liable for the car you hit and the people in it that you hurt or killed? You are as well as the mechanic. If installed and bled correctly they will work but the car is test driven to ensure they are working properly and if not rechecked and re bled and corrected then test driven again to ensure safety and function. You could be lazy and just slap it together like a fast food hamburger then blame-shift when they fail because the you followed the instructions and they should have worked or you could test them forward, reverse, fast, slow, hard and soft twice to ensure your work and justify the trust someone placed in you to do the job.
Interesting story but a little hard to believe. If your employer spied on you that would be a criminal offense and he or she would be in jail. It's not comparable with a software bug that could be exploited to spy on someone.

As to the brakes it's not the same thing. It would be like if the mechanic didn't calculate the possibility of someone cutting your brake lines then they failed.
 
It was a bug, not an intentional way to spy. In developing software, sometimes **** just happens. You can't catch every bug when you're dealing with infinitely complex software.

lol, but when it's other OEMs they don't get this kind of benefit of doubt.

What's the excuse for Siri listening and the judg have going on for several years?
 
lol, but when it's other OEMs they don't get this kind of benefit of doubt.

What's the excuse for Siri listening and the judg have going on for several years?

Who says other OEMs don't get the same benefit of doubt - you? As far as Siri is concerned, by definition it has to "listen in" all the time - otherwise it wouldn't know when you're asking it "Hey Siri..." Secondly, who says there's an excuse for Siri sometimes letting humans review (not listen in) audio it captured? Apple says that this review happened to < 0.2% of audio recordings and that folks who enable Siri agree to it in the terms of service. But Apple agreed that this was not enough and agreed to give users an in-your-face option to opt out in the future. Case closed.
 
Interesting story but a little hard to believe. If your employer spied on you that would be a criminal offense and he or she would be in jail. It's not comparable with a software bug that could be exploited to spy on someone.

As to the brakes it's not the same thing. It would be like if the mechanic didn't calculate the possibility of someone cutting your brake lines then they failed.


Ahhh yes, you see it would be a criminal offense you could prosecute had a company not deliberately done somethings that they did post this small harmless software glitch and people didn’t find it so “hard to believe”. I can promise you however, I have heard that many times getting to the point I am finally at with this and I would love to elaborate on the details but unfortunately at this time I cannot. BTW no one cut the brake lines they just caught the free fluid and didn’t mention the leak, the car manufacturer sold a lot of cars leaking as brand new then cleaned up the puddles and whistled as they walked away and later found the news broadcast about it hard to believe while I am sure many more people than just me are trying to find the pieces before they can even begin to pick them up. But better me than you right?
 
Ahhh yes, you see it would be a criminal offense you could prosecute had a company not deliberately done somethings that they did post this small harmless software glitch and people didn’t find it so “hard to believe”. I can promise you however, I have heard that many times getting to the point I am finally at with this and I would love to elaborate on the details but unfortunately at this time I cannot. BTW no one cut the brake lines they just caught the free fluid and didn’t mention the leak, the car manufacturer sold a lot of cars leaking as brand new then cleaned up the puddles and whistled as they walked away and later found the news broadcast about it hard to believe while I am sure many more people than just me are trying to find the pieces before they can even begin to pick them up. But better me than you right?
Again the glitch doesn't cause someone to exploit it so that's where your brakes analogy fails. The brakes would have to have a weak spot for a person to exploit. For example brake lines under the car that were easily accessible and cut. Since you made user name just to post this I'm guessing you're a victim of Apple's bug and your employer used it to spy on you? Again still illegal even if it's using a glitch or bug.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.