This story is absolutely awful. It reminds us, once again, of the dangers of locked digital ecosystems. Carissa Véliz’s recent TEDx TAlk about the power and value of the analogue rings even more true. I made my comments about it here.
I find it unconscionable that this person has $30 000 worth of devices locked because of this, not to mention the financial and emotional cost to his professional and personal life.
I wonder what triggered the lock. Is it the source of the gift card (store), the amount ($500), or both?
This makes me wonder if Apple and, I guess all companies that provide gift cards, can trace them back to the reseller they sold it too. If yes, then I’m very worried.
I am planning to buy Google Play Store and Apple App Store gift cards from countries I don’t live and have no ties to protect my privacy. For Google, I plan to do this with an anonymous account. I was going to buy the gift cards from CakePay who accepts anonymous payments via Monero.
Now because of this story, I am thinking that Apple can probably trace all the gift cards they sold to Cake Pay, and hence all the users who bought them from them. They could easily lock those users to because they went out of their way to protect their privacy.
What this man went through could easily and absolutely happen with Proton for any reason: