Like other members of this community I’m glad to have discovered — thanks, Google — it was guarantees of radically superior product security that pushed me into paying Apple’s hair-raising prices.
Eight years later, I’ve been waiting for over 2 weeks for help with a stalker app stealthily installed on my iPhone 7-plus, a device that cost most of $1,000. It’s been over a week since an intermediary assured me, again, that Apple’s product security specialists ‘are working on it and will be in touch’ — after I asked why no one had called to ask me any questions, as proof of active troubleshooting.
What could be technically interesting about my case is this: I’m not the stalker’s primary target. That’s an old friend I recently met just once, last month — after a gap of several years and drive of several hundred miles. The stalker/hacker is almost certainly his ex-, who continually intrudes on his life physically, even though they separated years ago. My single call to his iPhone — the first I ever placed, as he was on his way to the restaurant — apparently gave the stalker/hacker enough information to install the unwanted software on mine.
As I have never met the stalker/hacker, the most likely path for the corruption of my iPhone is an email from my friend’s cell phone that installed not just stalking software but malware capable of sending my iCloud/Apple ID and password to the perpetrator. I am basing this assumption on an article in Wired last July: ‘The simple way Apple and Google let domestic abusers stalk victims’ — involving Apple’s ‘Find My Friends’ feature.
A socialist might see this as poetic justice for two people communicating over different models of a luxury product, but I was only dragged into the Apple club by my need for a secure device.
I’d appreciate feedback about:
whether other customers of this company have recently experienced anything like my long and so far fruitless wait for help from Apple
my assumptions about the stalker/hacker’s methods
a recommendation of a truly safe mobile phone from a company whose promises about privacy and security are more than cynical marketing hype.
Eight years later, I’ve been waiting for over 2 weeks for help with a stalker app stealthily installed on my iPhone 7-plus, a device that cost most of $1,000. It’s been over a week since an intermediary assured me, again, that Apple’s product security specialists ‘are working on it and will be in touch’ — after I asked why no one had called to ask me any questions, as proof of active troubleshooting.
What could be technically interesting about my case is this: I’m not the stalker’s primary target. That’s an old friend I recently met just once, last month — after a gap of several years and drive of several hundred miles. The stalker/hacker is almost certainly his ex-, who continually intrudes on his life physically, even though they separated years ago. My single call to his iPhone — the first I ever placed, as he was on his way to the restaurant — apparently gave the stalker/hacker enough information to install the unwanted software on mine.
As I have never met the stalker/hacker, the most likely path for the corruption of my iPhone is an email from my friend’s cell phone that installed not just stalking software but malware capable of sending my iCloud/Apple ID and password to the perpetrator. I am basing this assumption on an article in Wired last July: ‘The simple way Apple and Google let domestic abusers stalk victims’ — involving Apple’s ‘Find My Friends’ feature.
A socialist might see this as poetic justice for two people communicating over different models of a luxury product, but I was only dragged into the Apple club by my need for a secure device.
I’d appreciate feedback about:
whether other customers of this company have recently experienced anything like my long and so far fruitless wait for help from Apple
my assumptions about the stalker/hacker’s methods
a recommendation of a truly safe mobile phone from a company whose promises about privacy and security are more than cynical marketing hype.