Apple

How much of Apple’s revenue is driven by their faux concern about “privacy” and “Security”?

My brother dropped dead of an OD last year. Cops only found his corpse after the downstairs neighbours complained of a foul liquid dripping through the ceiling. I am his only living next-of-kin, hence why I got woken up by my local police force on behalf of a police force in a difference province about 1800 km away.

Made arrangements with the coroner to have his body transported to a crematorium after the autopsy. Paid to have his body cremated. Flew to this other city on a flight booked at a bereavement rate. Booked a hotel on a bereavement rate.

When I arrived at this other city met with the landlord, checked his apartment for personal effects, grabbed his iPhone, his Apple watch, and his Macbook. Couldn’t really access much in the apartment as most of the flooring had been removed as part of the cleanup process. So I signed the paperwork authorizing the landlord to dispose of his belongings. The next day I picked up his ashes from the crematorium, filed for survivor benefits under the Canada Pension Plan, and gave the landlord a copy of his certificate of cremation and transferred the ownership of my brother’s car to the landlord for disposal. 

Gave the hotel a copy of his certificate of cremation to validate the bereavement rate

Gave the airline a cpoy of his certificate of cremations to validate the bereavement rate

The crematorium had forwarded a copy of his certificate of cremation to Equifax and Trans Canada Credit.

The crematorium had also sent a copy of his certificate of cremation to the Canada Pension Plan so that they would accept my claim for CPP survivor benefits.

When I got home, I did factory restores of the three devices.

Activation lock……

Okay, fine, not a big deal. I don’t want access to his information. The life he led I’m pretty sure that some things are better left unknown, otherwise I’m pretty sure that I’d be obligated to get law enforcement involved. But I could have given the devices away.

Nope.

Apparently Apple can’t verify a death from a Death Certificate, a certificate of cremation, a coroner’s report, a phone call to the coroner, or a phone call to the investigating officer.

They need a court order…….. not for access to his information. As I said, somethings are better left unknown.

Court orders run in the neighbourhood of $10k.

I’m not great at a lot of things, but I am good with math. $10k – $2500.00 = $7500.00

So, I’d be $7500.00 in the hole for equipment that brand new was worth $2500.00

And when you consider that I am not the only person in this situation, this actually works out pretty good in Apple’s favour. Perfectly functional hardware going to the e-recycler or the landfill means devices that Apple doesn’t have to compete against. This translates into sales of new equipment.

Well, it’s your brother’s fault for not setting you up as the next of kin.

We hadn’t spoken to each other in ages. Our family was extremely dysfunctional.

But that didn’t matter to the police force that found his body.

That didn’t matter to the coroner

That didn’t matter to the crematorium

That didn’t matter to the airline

That didn’t matter to the hotel.

That hasn’t matted to the various creditors looking for payment on his massive debts

I was the only person that they could find contact information for and that was good enough to have his corpse cremated.

So it should be more than good enough for Apple to remove the activation lock from a device and allow it to be used by someone else after it has been wiped and updated.

Nope.

Gotta divert this stuff to e-waste or landfill so we don’t have to compete against it on the resale market