Apple nuking a customer's account over a bad gift card is a warning for everyone
Paris Buttfield-Addison with an absolute horror story:
A major brick-and-mortar store sold an Apple Gift Card that Apple seemingly took offence to, and locked out my entire Apple ID, effectively bricking my devices and my iCloud Account, Apple Developer ID, and everything associated with it, and I have no recourse.
The full blog post is chilling. Buttfield-Addison only got his Apple account reinstated after blogging about his experience, and other high-profile blogs re-shared his ordeal, which caught the attention of an actual human in Apple's executive relations team who restored his account a week later.
Buttfield-Addison is the latest public example of a company revoking access to a person's digital life, probably due to some automated decision, but where affected customers have no means or grounds to appeal. In reality, this happens all the time and most people's stories never hear the light of day. Even companies like Apple, which sell physical electronics for a living, hold too much power and control over their customers' digital lives in perpetuity, and customers generally don't have the means to fight back or hold the companies accountable when things go wrong.
It's also a warning to everyone — not just Apple customers and especially this time of year — that gift cards are prone to scams and are increasingly difficult to detect. If one bad gift card can result in nuking access to someone's account, then gift cards aren't worth the risk to begin with.
More at Tidbits.
