The safety of purchasing Apple gift cards from anywhere other than the company itself has been called into question after a story of a well-known developer and author being locked out of his account.
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/dev / world conference organizer Paris Buttfield-Addison described what happened after he tried to redeem an Apple gift card purchased from a well-known retailer. After nearly 30 years as a loyal customer, author of technical books on Apple’s programming languages (Objective-C and Swift), and having spent tens of thousands of dollars on devices, apps, conferences, and services, he found himself locked out of his personal and professional digital life without explanation or possibility of recovery.
His Apple ID, which he had had for about 25 years, was permanently disabled. It wasn't just an email address; it was his primary digital identity, containing terabytes of family photos, his entire message history, and the key to syncing his work across the ecosystem.
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The developer faced the prospect of being unable to work and losing important personal data. The reason appeared to be that, despite the fact that he had purchased the card from a legitimate source, someone had previously compromised the security features and cashed it in. His attempt to cash it in was flagged as fraud.
Buttfield-Addison contacted Apple Support and was initially told that nothing could be done and that the issue could not be escalated. Fortunately, media attention led to his transfer to Apple's Relationship Executive and it was eventually resolved.
While this issue has been resolved, the ease with which it can happen and the lack of a standard process for resolving such issues highlight how vulnerable we are when all of our personal data is locked away in Apple's ecosystem. Essentially, Apple can act as judge, jury, and data executioner if it believes any account holder has committed a crime.
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This incident raises questions about the safety of purchasing Apple gift cards from anywhere other than the company's retail stores. It's not uncommon for unwanted gift cards to be resold privately at a discount, and while most people understand the risks involved, there's no reason to suspect risk when buying from a well-known retailer. The incident has led to discussions about how to protect data.
