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What would happen if Apple suddenly didn't like you?

R

romanof

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I was reading the current news item on The Register about the dev that got totally banned from Apple because the gift card he tried to use was (bad, counterfeit, defective, whatever???) He lost all services, including anything on icloud, Imessage, etc. Effectively his whole online life. Blackballed was the term. Of course, any attempt to contact Apple has run into AI idiots.

That got me to thinking about runaway and stupid AI agents that are replacing people. What would I lose if it happened to me?

iCloud would not be a problem. I only use it to move stuff between devices. In my opinion, people (and businesses) that live in the cloud are going to die horribly in the cloud in the near term. My backups are stored locally and in multiple physical locations. But, no matter...

iMessage I could replace. Would't want to until somebody fixes SMS and security, but it would work.

Since I am not a phone person, getting a few messages per day and seldom a real call that isn't spam, I could switch to Android pretty easily.
But what about all the passkeys in my keychain? The passwords? Could they somehow lock those out? My research says no, but who knows what hooks they have into downline Macs? Suddenly, no access to bank accounts, retirement accounts, investment accounts...

In the same vein, I always thought that my own programming code was mine, until MacOS 15.1 came out and told me differently. "Sorry, we don't recognize that app as from a valid developer. Into the bit bucket it goes." Or equivalent words. They changed that back quickly, but still...

That article has me really concerned about living almost entirely in the ecosystem of Apple and what could actually happen. My problem, is that I really don't know what COULD actually happen in a worst case scenario.

Thoughts, anyone?
 
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This is what comes to mind for me.

Screenshot 2025-12-17 at 07.52.23.png


I just could never go "all in" with Apple on stuff this important, as they are too inconsistent and opaque with how to deal with issues that crop up.

The story of what that Dev is going through is literally a nightmare.

Obviously everyone should do what they prefer, but I vastly prefer having key things siloed from each other and backed up in multiple ways when possible.
 
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We’re entering an era in which governments want the likes of Apple to act as gatekeepers of morality, re: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/12/15/uk-pushes-apple-block-explicit-images/. It’s perfectly feasible that Apple, Google, Microsoft, et al, would block your account and restrict access to everything simply because a fallible AI determines that you have “something iffy” on your device. You could be the most law-abiding morally-pure person you could possibly be - how do you defend yourself against a fallible AI’s gatekeeping?

This should serve as warning to us all to not put all of our eggs in one basket. “Backup” no longer means backing up your files. It means having an entirely alternate ecosystem for when your primary one is denied to you through no fault of your own.
 
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Although I am still iphone and Mac user, I am ready to switch anytime. I lost all my trust and confidence in Apple from the moment they abandoned Aperture. Since then, using of any Apple services solely isnt' an option for me. I am choosing sevices which are available for Mac and other operating systems.
 
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I’m glad OP posted this as I was not aware this could happen over a fradulent gift card. I could care less about old messages but will for sure more proactively back up my photos on external drive. From there I already have a Windows PC so don’t mind leaving an Apple phone behind if needs be
 
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After a lot of research, I decided that I am not quite as vulnerable as I thought. I am an old dude and I have seen too many disasters (starting clear back in the IBM 360 era) and most not being malicious, just oversights, bad plans, and on occasion, stupidity. Thus, I have always been a backup fiend. Multiples, offline and offsite, Linux folders backed up to Mac Time Machine, Mac stuff backed up with Linux rsync and so forth.

For the current problem, enumerated in the original post, I did an export of my Apple password app file, encrypting it with a generic GPG app. I will export it every time (very seldom) that I add or change a PW. I am still working on how you backup and backoff passkeys without using some device that can be hosed by the manufacturer.

Security is an ongoing and never ending process.
 
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This is why I don't trust the cloud! Anything like this could happen to anyone, from any company, at any time. Scary as a webmaster myself!

Apple won't limit you when it comes to your hardware or macOS, so no issue there (at least for me). But having no Apple ID instantly and without warning can have its own set of issues. There are ways around all this, so no major issue, just the time needed to change apps around from the Mac App Store etc.

Always have offline backups of data and don't tie your computer OS to any company's system in order to use it (like needing your Apple ID or MS ID in order to log-in to your computer). All ecosystems can fail and moving to another might not solve the problem, unless it is like the story above. I always think: if all online systems lock you out, government style. The way things are going in the world, that is a real possibility. So preparing for that, isolates your data from being disabled or lost if one or more or all lock you out, all of a sudden and without any warning.
 
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MacGizmo said:
"What would happen if Apple suddenly didn't like you?"

Have you seen macOS Tahoe? Clearly Apple already doesn't like us.​

Click to expand...
I have seen a lot of that lately. I am still on Sequoia with an M2 Mini pro since I almost never update to a new major version until months have passed and I have vetted that all my Unix utilities will still run.
Recently my faithful old 2017 Air finally needed to be put out to pasture and I replaced it with a MBA M5. A super machine that is screaming fast, light of weight and slick of looks.
And it came with Tahoe, of course. But...

I can't see much difference from Sequoia, and certainly not anything to get upset about, or rather, anything that upsets me. Granted, it is mostly an "enter text" machine with VSCodium and Scrivener being almost the only two apps that are used. So, what am I missing that is causing all the ruckus?
 
romanof said:
…But what about all the passkeys in my keychain? The passwords? Could they somehow lock those out? My research says no, but who knows what hooks they have into downline Macs? Suddenly, no access to bank accounts, retirement accounts, investment accounts...
Click to expand...
After my boss, I was the first in my office to get a shiny new Zenith Z-100, single 5.25” floppy drive, in 1984 (?). I didn’t really trust that newfangled machine, and always printed out important data, on paper, filed carefully in a metal filing cabinet. That habit has saved my bacon numerous times throughout my professional career, especially when I retired from the USAF and constant reorgs got so many things mucked up/lost (a certain tesla CEO’s invasion of federal records, for ALL of us, should frighten all of you like it does me).
To this day, all of my passwords are printed out on paper, hidden away into a clever slot built into my printer/shredder stand (I’m a hobbyist woodworker) and the really important passwords (bank, TSP, Fidelity Investments) are written down, but hidden elsewhere.
Despite the huge strides in ‘net security over the years, the number of hacking paths have kept up; and I don’t have a good feeling about any of it…
 
romanof said:
That article has me really concerned about living almost entirely in the ecosystem of Apple and what could actually happen. My problem, is that I really don't know what COULD actually happen in a worst case scenario.
Click to expand...
This is why I keep all my passwords in 1Password instead of iCloud Passwords, for one thing.

And while I use iCloud Drive (a lot) I also have my iMac specifically set to keep *everything* downloaded and backed up. Yes, it would be a frickin’ nightmare if Apple locked me out due to hacking or other mishap, I would be able to recover pretty much everything, I think, from backups, and I would still be able to log into banking sites, etc because my login credentials are stored outside Apple.

Oh, and every month I make a backup of my 1Password database in a couple different formats onto an encrypted disk
image that’s also well backed up. I could probably get by with backing up an iCloud Passwords database as well, but there are a number of other things I like about 1Password so I keep it around.

This all sounds crazy paranoid, but when I started looking at everything that’s in Apple’s servers it got me a little worried. There are MANY documented stories about people getting locked out of their Apple accounts for reasons that were not even their fault. Sometimes even through glitches on Apple’s end. When you’re dealing with a monolithic company (doesn’t matter which one) that holds a lot of your important data, it just makes sense to have a backup strategy in case you get cut off.
 
Always have multiple backups of your valuable information. That way, you should never be locked out of information you need for medical accounts, passwords, and websites.
 
I have a pure analog solution as a worst case, last line of credential preservation.
I keep usernames and passwords and the like written down with ink on paper, and keep those in a small spiral bound booklet. 👻
 
Gift cards are such a pain in the ass to ring up. I don't miss them at ALL!
 
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MacGizmo said:
"What would happen if Apple suddenly didn't like you?"

Have you seen macOS Tahoe? Clearly Apple already doesn't like us.​

Click to expand...
I've felt this way since iOS 7 and macOS Yosemite. I can't stand so-called 'Modern' UI design at all (it reminds me of an era of computing I'd rather leave behind, and if anyone had to ever sit in front of Tandy 1000s in the '80s and early '90s they'd understand too)

At least now I can take comfort in the thought that my use of outdated Apple products (iPhone 3GS/2009 MBP/iPad 2) is skewing the usage statistics a bit.
 
Genelec8341 said:
I have a pure analog solution as a worst case, last line of credential preservation.
I keep usernames and passwords and the like written down with ink on paper, and keep those in a small spiral bound booklet. 👻
Click to expand...
My mother does the same except she puts post-it notes on the laptop or on an end table nearby. We can only hope she never has anyone break in!
 
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Got a link or what? And is the story just taking this guys word for it? Feel like you left things out or are unaware of details.
 
Genelec8341 said:
I have a pure analog solution as a worst case, last line of credential preservation.
I keep usernames and passwords and the like written down with ink on paper, and keep those in a small spiral bound booklet. 👻
Click to expand...

I was just recently thinking of doing this. I do have my critical passwords in a note on my phone, but assuming that would be affected since my notes are shared across the cloud. I don’t keep a lot in the cloud (no photos), but what I do keep would still be a pain.

I’m definitely still a paper and pen girl - maybe because I always remember stuff better when I physically write it anyway.
 
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