Apple paid millions to woman who got her nudes posted on her facebook by apple iphone repair contractors

[mr moose]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

They didn't wipe the data before sending it to the contractor, also if they choose to subcontract repairs they must make sure the contractors fulfill the privacy standards they advertise.

 

It's not like just because I'm paying someone else to do the job I said I'd do then suddenly I'm no longer responsible for the outcome.

They can absolutely enforce the terms of their contract and they can absolutely include terms that forbid this sort of thing. If Pegatron signs that contract but refuses to enforce the terms Apple can sue them to the moon and back, and win.

I agree with the logic behind your argument.  But I still don't think it is entirely apples fault,  there is only so much they can do and the authorized dealer is an independent who took the job.  Ultimately  they are the ones who should bear the consequences.  But apple being the name on the service has stepped in and seen it through to ensure they don't get bad press from it.  

[LAwLz]

11 minutes ago, mr moose said:

They're not,  they only stepped in and paid up because in this day and age bad PR is bad PR regardless who's at fault. 

Well, the court might not have put the blame on them but some people in the general public are blaming Apple for this.

 

In any case, sucks that this happened. I hope we can all learn from this. Don't hand your phone full of nudes and login details over to a stranger, especially if you don't even have as much as a PIN on your phone.

If there was a "Darwin award" for tech related fuck-ups this woman would be a good candidate.

It sucks that it happened to her and I put the blame on the person who did the repair, but I still feel like the victim here did some really stupid things as well.

 

  

5 minutes ago, mr moose said:

I agree with the logic behind your argument.  But I still don't think it is entirely apples fault,  there is only so much they can do and the authorized dealer is an independent who took the job.  Ultimately  they are the ones who should bear the consequences.  But apple being the name on the service has stepped in and seen it through to ensure they don't get bad press from it.  

Exactly. I think Apple has done everything right in this case.

They stepped in and made sure the victim got compensated and they are now handling it with the subcontractor. What more can you ask for?

[Arika]

1 minute ago, mr moose said:

I agree with the logic behind your argument.  But I still don't think it is entirely apples fault,  there is only so much they can do and the authorized dealer is an independent who took the job.  Ultimately  they are the ones who should bear the consequences.  But apple being the name on the service has stepped in and seen it through to ensure they don't get bad press from it.  

i don't think it would be as bad as it is, if there wasn't big song and dance about the anti-right to repair arguments about how non-authorised third party repair stores having access to personal information will have privacy risks.

 

Quote

Cameron Demetre, the regional executive director of TechNet, a trading group representing Apple, HP, and Honeywell in committee hearings on the bill, says that his clients are concerned about the potential exposure that third-party repair shops will have to personal users' data when repairing devices. Demetre warns that opening up repair access and freedom could lead to "unintended consequences."

Cameron Demetre, the organization's regional executive director, said manufacturers worried about "unvetted third parties" having access to the personal information stored in consumer electronics. He said the bill had "the potential for troubling unintended consequences, including serious adverse security, privacy, and safety risks."

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/30/apple-lobbies-against-right-to-repair-bill/

 

Quote

Marko Liias (D), when asked why owning an iPhone is different from owning other products. After vouching for warranties and authorized repair networks (and stating that you can be sure they won’t “put TikTok on your phone”)

https://www.ifixit.com/News/35312/big-tech-doesnt-like-diy-repair-but-wont-say-why-in-public

 

[mr moose]

1 minute ago, LAwLz said:

Well, the court might not have put the blame on them but some people in the general public are blaming Apple for this.

I have lost faith in the US courts,  nothing they say will sway me on the guilt of anyone.  

 

1 minute ago, LAwLz said:

In any case, sucks that this happened. I hope we can all learn from this. Don't hand your phone full of nudes and login details over to a stranger, especially if you don't even have as much as a PIN on your phone.

If there was a "Darwin award" for tech related fuck-ups this woman would be a good candidate.

It sucks that it happened to her and I put the blame on the person who did the repair, but I still feel like the victim here did some really stupid things as well.

 

I don't blame her that much (more want to help educate people).  Having worked extensively outside of tech circles,  the vast majority of the population don't even know the difference between wifi and the internet.   Hell,  I know people who think facebook is all secureity and roses.  I'm getting tired of trying to explain how nothing is free.  And with mobile phones and the internet being almost (if not already) essential, I think it is prudent the law look after those who don't understand how it all works. 

 

4 minutes ago, Arika S said:

i don't think it would be as bad as it is, if there wasn't big song and dance about the anti-right to repair arguments about how non-authorised third party repair stores having access to personal information will have privacy risks.

 

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/30/apple-lobbies-against-right-to-repair-bill/

 

https://www.ifixit.com/News/35312/big-tech-doesnt-like-diy-repair-but-wont-say-why-in-public

 

So true. 

[spartaman64]

 

1 hour ago, RejZoR said:

Authorized/approved is the same shit as 3rd party. They are not actual Apple. There are bunch of "authorized" services for major brands like Samsung, Philips or Sony and they do dumb shit regularly. Something actual vendor service centers would never dare to pull off. Maybe not leaking someone's nudes, but they often operate different than guidelines or rules dictate. And that's because they are still 3rd parties, just authorized to do official work for whatever brand. And they'll always be less reliable or trustworthy.

as i understand it it wasnt just that she went to a third party certified repair shop she sent her iphone to apple and they sent it to a contractor 

yeah pegatron is a taiwan company im not sure if they even have locations open to the public in the US. also apparently asus spun off from them which is interesting

[Blademaster91]

1 hour ago, RejZoR said:

Lets just say people like to shit on Apple solely because it's Apple. And such idiots are getting on my nerves, because they are generally the same idiots who spread bullshit how garbage and limited and closed ecosystem Apple is yadiyadada and talk bullshit stories to fearmonger people from considering iPhones. Trust me, I've been there for years and when I went with iPhone anyway I realized how full of shit they are. And they are one of saltiest motherfuckers I've ever seen. That's why.

 

Like I said, if it was Apple's actual own facility with their own employees, situation and blame would be entirely different. Being a contractor fucking it up, Apple can be angry and outraged as much as the woman that had nudes leaked. But it's just their contractor. They can't monitor them the same way they could their actual own employees. And enforce policies and punish them accordingly. They can only demand things from Pegatron about the same woman can from Apple. Apart from contractual work, they aren't connected in any different way.

I think this is getting any defense because it's Apple, and the devices being so restricted and a closed ecosystem to the point where you have to send it into Apple for some repairs is a definitely a drawback because you just can't take your stuff in for repair to a reputable small repair shop.

I agree with @Arika S it wouldn't be so bad if Apple weren't a company that puts up marketing that tells you any repair service that isn't their own approved service is dangerous because they'll steal your data, while Apple makes their service sound like you can just hand over your stuff without a care and be able to trust them not to be going through your phone or whatever.

Even if they're just a contractor, Apple still chose them, and Apple doesn't repair everything in their stores so they might contract out a lot of repairs.

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, spartaman64 said:

 

as i understand it it wasnt just that she went to a third party certified repair shop she sent her iphone to apple and they sent it to a contractor 

yeah pegatron is a taiwan company im not sure if they even have locations open to the public in the US. also apparently asus spun off from them which is interesting

If it was sent to Apple and they sent it off to 3rd party, that slightly changes things, but ultimately it's still a 3rd party that you can't have same control over as your very own center. You don't control who works for you, you put "hope" so to speak that contractors obey your rules and have people working there who respect those terms. Which, give they are not actually directly employed by Apple, I very much doubt they do. It's always a problem with contractors if you ask me.

[Sauron]

2 hours ago, RejZoR said:

And how you're going to ensure some random bored underpaid dude in service center is going to actually obey that? You can't.

Yes you can, with checks on the contractor's internal protocols. And maybe if the employee is bored and underpaid the problem is that you're cheaping out on your contractors - maybe you should hire someone to do it yourself and pay them a fair wage instead of going for the race to the bottom and then acting surprised when something goes wrong.

4 hours ago, RejZoR said:

You also can't sue that dude for millions coz he doesn't have them.

You can sue the company that employs them as well as Apple, which is the company you actually gave your phone to expecting service and not a privacy invasion. How would you feel if you ordered an expensive pizza from a restaurant, then found out they got a contractor to cook it and that contractor decided to spit on it as well? Would you sue that random contractor's employee or the restaurant?

[Quackers101]

3 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Lets just say people like to shit on Apple solely because it's Apple. And such idiots are getting on my nerves, because they are generally the same idiots who spread bullshit how garbage and limited and closed ecosystem Apple is yadiyadada and talk bullshit stories to fearmonger people from considering iPhones.

Because people like to shit on them, since they are setting themselves up for it and make contradictory statements just to look good.

I don't know why you want to dislike apple products, they just have their own use case and can be better or worse for other types of content.

From what a lot of peole mention, how good its to produce content with an ecosystem that might help you in that area.

 

When apple is one of the big offenders to being against right to repair, want people to trust their branding when they are going against both the consumers and creating E-waste by design that is nor clean or green friendly unlike the image they want to sell you in every way possible with an added apple price and lies. although not as much lies compared to other companies or maybe as awful in e-waste like certain others.

[Kisai]

22 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

im not sure to what degree her phone was broken so this might not have been possible

Well considering that some adult models send their subscribers these things via snapchat or other programs on the phone, it's not an unreasonable thing to consider that they might break the phone at some point and need it repaired.

 

Now... and this goes back a lot... should technicians go fishing for 'illegal' content on someone's device brought in for repair? I'd say "definitely not" less you be held responsible for transmitting something illegal. If you see CP on someone's desktop, that's one thing, in which case you call the police in to investigate the computer before you repair it, since that will tamper with evidence otherwise.

 

On the other hand, hardware that is supposed to be recycled, is supposed to be erased, and the one doing the recycling has the responsibility to erase or destroy the device. 

 

What seems really weird in this story is why. What did they possibly hope to gain from doing this. Did they do this before? Was the customer haggling over the repair costs? Were the techs being jerks to her, or was she being a jerk to them, who knows. This is one of those things where none of us know what actually happened, just the "thing" that happened that Apple paid out.

 

And if you think this is Apple's fault, how many of you have ever taken your car in for service and got the run-around for something that should have been easily fixed? Not everyone is going to be perfect, quite the contrary, I'd say that the vast majority of "service", be it a computer store or a car dealership is on the "shady" side of things, and they will hire people who are underqualified to do the work, and they will make mistakes. If you only ever hired people who were competent, you'd be paying $200/hr to repair anything.

 

 

[spartaman64]

20 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Well considering that some adult models send their subscribers these things via snapchat or other programs on the phone, it's not an unreasonable thing to consider that they might break the phone at some point and need it repaired.

 

Now... and this goes back a lot... should technicians go fishing for 'illegal' content on someone's device brought in for repair? I'd say "definitely not" less you be held responsible for transmitting something illegal. If you see CP on someone's desktop, that's one thing, in which case you call the police in to investigate the computer before you repair it, since that will tamper with evidence otherwise.

 

On the other hand, hardware that is supposed to be recycled, is supposed to be erased, and the one doing the recycling has the responsibility to erase or destroy the device. 

 

What seems really weird in this story is why. What did they possibly hope to gain from doing this. Did they do this before? Was the customer haggling over the repair costs? Were the techs being jerks to her, or was she being a jerk to them, who knows. This is one of those things where none of us know what actually happened, just the "thing" that happened that Apple paid out.

 

And if you think this is Apple's fault, how many of you have ever taken your car in for service and got the run-around for something that should have been easily fixed? Not everyone is going to be perfect, quite the contrary, I'd say that the vast majority of "service", be it a computer store or a car dealership is on the "shady" side of things, and they will hire people who are underqualified to do the work, and they will make mistakes. If you only ever hired people who were competent, you'd be paying $200/hr to repair anything.

 

 

well as i understand it she sent her phone to apple who sent it to these contractors. pegatron is a taiwan based company and they dont appear to be running repair shops in the US. another interesting fact is apparently asus was spun off from them. so i dont think she even interacted with the technicians and since it was apple sending the phone to someone they do bear more responsibility for what happened than if she herself did. 

[Quackers101]

29 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

-snip-

 and since it was apple sending the phone to someone they do bear more responsibility for what happened than if she herself did. 

yes, also when you consider that apple wants you to trust them with this kind of stuff and how they so active in pushing back others that might be more trusted by the consumer. Also the scare tactics used by big corporations like apple and others, like LG's videos that LG deleted by push back from consumers and so on.

[StDragon]

The irony is that's probably the most she'll ever get for the nude pics. 

 

There's so much ethically wrong with this story at a multitude of levels. 

[Rolling2405]

On 6/8/2021 at 12:07 AM, RejZoR said:

Sorry, but how is Apple responsible for this? If it was a direct worker of Apple or Apple's actual technician, sure.

The repair company is contracted by Apple that's how.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

On 6/8/2021 at 6:45 AM, LAwLz said:

If there was a "Darwin award" for tech related fuck-ups this woman would be a good candidate.

A personal pet peeve to me is people who refer to the Darwin Awards about being 'stupid' when it hinges specifically on your stupidity removing you from the gene pool and ensuring your genes die with you and go no further.  That's the whole crux of it, everything else is just regular stupidity.  Kill yourself some stupid way but already have children?  No Darwin Award, cause no matter how stupid that was, you were smart enough to spread your genes before you died.  The whole 'Darwin' aspect is only about losing your ability to breed and spread your genes.  It's not a measure of stupidity.

[DemiGod]

On 6/8/2021 at 12:53 AM, Roswell said:

Use at least SOME form of security on your phone, damn.

 

I get this still shouldn’t have happened but who the hell sends a phone full of their nudes out without AT LEAST a pin code?!

 

Repair tech is a creepy asshole, customer is a moron. 

In my country technicians require you to remove all codes etc before giving them a phones, so they can test it. So stop blaming a person that might just have been instructed to remove the pin code, etc

[LAwLz]

4 hours ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

A personal pet peeve to me is people who refer to the Darwin Awards about being 'stupid' when it hinges specifically on your stupidity removing you from the gene pool and ensuring your genes die with you and go no further.  That's the whole crux of it, everything else is just regular stupidity.  Kill yourself some stupid way but already have children?  No Darwin Award, cause no matter how stupid that was, you were smart enough to spread your genes before you died.  The whole 'Darwin' aspect is only about losing your ability to breed and spread your genes.  It's not a measure of stupidity.

Hence why I put "Darwin award" in quotes. 

Also, I am 99% sure you made up the whole "you need to kot have any children to get a dawrin award". I've never seen thwt before and I can't find it on their website. 

I think you're reading way too much into the name and taking it too literally. 

[Roswell]

1 hour ago, DemiGod said:

In my country technicians require you to remove all codes etc before giving them a phones, so they can test it. So stop blaming a person that might just have been instructed to remove the pin code, etc

Apple doesn’t require you to disable security when getting service. If they end up doing a replacement, they’ll make you disable Find my iPhone before they ship it but that’s it.

[HenrySalayne]

Imagine if there would be a small device, maybe fingernail sized, you could put into your phone to store all your private data on and then remove it, before you send the phone in for repairs. It would easily ensure things like this will never happen.

[WolframaticAlpha]

On 6/7/2021 at 10:01 PM, GDRRiley said:

ah yes the small repair shop will leak your data, oh wait that would result them crumbing

If you ever feel stupid, look at the top pinned comment. 

[xAcid9]

1 hour ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

If you ever feel stupid, look at the top pinned comment. 

Just read that, I'm more stupid now.

[Kisai]

3 hours ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

If you ever feel stupid, look at the top pinned comment. 

That's just standard pass-the-buck from any computer shop.

 

"Backup your data before you hand it over to us" (because we are going to wipe the machine, and not actually fix it.)

 

This happens with PC's, this happens with Mac's, this happens with Nintendo 3DS, Wii, WiiU, and Switch devices, and it happens with mobile phones.

 

The thing is, ultimately businesses want customers to be liable for everything (which is why you get phonebook-sized Terms of service, end user licenses, privacy agreements, etc), and for them to be liable for nothing, and you get kicked to arbitration they choose in the event you ever try to sue them.

 

A real technician, can figure out what the problem is with a device, and it will cost you hundreds of dollars to fix, which customers routinely balk at. So that's where we are, your device gets shipped somewhere, they either fix it, or they send you a refurbished one. Your data is deleted off the device in the process.

[GDRRiley]

On 6/8/2021 at 2:15 PM, spartaman64 said:

well as i understand it she sent her phone to apple who sent it to these contractors. pegatron is a taiwan based company and they dont appear to be running repair shops in the US. another interesting fact is apparently asus was spun off from them. so i dont think she even interacted with the technicians and since it was apple sending the phone to someone they do bear more responsibility for what happened than if she herself did. 

On 6/8/2021 at 5:53 AM, RejZoR said:

If it was sent to Apple and they sent it off to 3rd party, that slightly changes things, but ultimately it's still a 3rd party that you can't have same control over as your very own center.

 

this is apples go to repair place in the US. you really think apple does much in store or even at their own facilities, nope gets sent out to them outside of Sac CA

 

On 6/8/2021 at 1:52 PM, Kisai said:

What seems really weird in this story is why. What did they possibly hope to gain from doing this. Did they do this before? Was the customer haggling over the repair costs? Were the techs being jerks to her, or was she being a jerk to them, who knows.

she gave her phone into apple to repair and they set it to them. this isn't a walk in place.

 

[SansVarnic]

-= Moved to Off-topic =-

Not Tech News.

[Blademaster91]

4 hours ago, Caroline said:

Don't record yourself naked if you don't want anyone to see you naked.

 

I usually bash Apple but this is ridiculous.

It doesn't matter if there were nudes or other personal things on the device, its an invasion of privacy for someone to go through it.