“A Victoria widow is outraged over Apple’s demand that she obtain a court order to retrieve her dead husband’s password so she can play games on an iPad,” Rosa Marchitelli reports for CBC News. “‘I thought it was ridiculous. I could get the pensions, I could get benefits, I could get all kinds of things from the federal government and the other government. But from Apple, I couldn’t even get a silly password. It’s nonsense,’ 72-year-old Peggy Bush told Go Public.”
MacDailyNews Take: It is nonsense, Betty, that “federal government and the other government” are so lackadaisical with your late husband’s privacy and personal data.
“Bush lost her husband David to lung cancer in August. The couple owned an iPad and an Apple computer. Bush knew the iPad’s log-in code, but didn’t know the Apple ID password,” Marchitelli reports. “So when her card game app stopped working, the family tried to reload it and realized it couldn’t be done without the password.”
“That’s when her daughter Donna Bush called Apple to ask if it could help retrieve the password or reset the account,” Marchitelli reports. “A court order can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on if a lawyer’s services are required. Peggy Bush said she couldn’t believe it either. After waiting months to get that password reset, she bought herself a laptop. It’s not an Apple MacBook.”
“That’s when the family contacted Go Public,” Marchitelli reports. “After Go Public contacted Apple, it did reach out to the Bush family and apologize for what it called a “misunderstanding,” offering to help the family solve the problem — without a court order. At the time of publication, it was working with Donna Bush to do that. Go Public asked Apple what its official policy is for customers trying to retrieve the passwords and digital information of family members who have passed away. It said it won’t comment.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple should state its official policy for customers trying to retrieve the passwords and digital information of family members who have passed away. That might help prod users to do what they should have done already: Organize their passwords and provide the ability for the people they’d like to allow access to their accounts upon the event of their death.
The triviality of Betty’s desire to play a card game doesn’t mean squat here. Apple simply has no way of knowing for sure why customers are trying to access Apple ID passwords.
As always, to reset a forgotten Apple ID, go here: https://iforgot.apple.com/
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Today is Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. and the markets are closed. As usual on such trading holidays, we will have limited posting today.