Post
This article by @parisba is why #CommunityHosting and #SelfHosting need to be normalised. They are the only way we can stop scenarios like this happening:
📰 https://hey.paris/posts/appleid
You might think this couldn't happen to you, but it could happen to anyone. It's especially scary as most big tech companies are in repressive countries.
It's much easier and cheaper than you think to make your own online services. I've done a guide for non-technical people at https://growyourown.services
@homegrown
Linkedin and PayPal are dangerous, too.
Unable Tod interact with someone, no mail, no phone in europe, just malaysian support, I'm done with closed Source Big Tech.
@homegrown @parisba wow what that fella is suffering is terrible!
And ofc a case for what you say, but mostly terrible for him
@homegrown @parisba this is exactly why I switched away from Gmail. I'm still dependent on my email domain's registrar, though.
By cosmic coincidence, just saw this over on Blooski:
I feel terrible for Paris - what on earth is going on at Apple?! There has to be some sort of recourse, some path to resolution. If it were me, I would prob find a way to get to Sydney, with all evidence/proof, and camp out at HQ until someone sane was willing to hear me out.
Shouldn’t be necessary.
Very best wishes to Paris for a good outcome. 🙏
This is (one reason) why I don’t use cloud services. Multi local backups. 👍
I don't have the money to throw at self-hosting.
I am extremely entrenched in the Google ecosystem, and I would like a way to extract everything to local backup, if nothing else. And if I can't host my own, Proton can handle most of what I use Google for (except websites) and they seem quite a bit less evil.
@homegrown @parisba We also need to keep teaching people about brittle architecture. Your life is brittle enough, and you don't need to add extra badness by making yourself dependent on Apple (or Google or Microsoft).
I guess it's shocking that this dude couldn't recognize that mixing personal and professional is dangerous. But they are not alone. At least have two different providers, FFS.
this person needs to hire a lawyer with that much financial investment at stake to "unbrick" all of his devices & recover his data
admit i'm v. glad i don't own any Apple products
i understand how storing his own data would have saved his 30 years of family photos but i don't understand how that could have stopped Apple from deciding to brick all of his tens of thousands of dollars of devices
@homegrown @parisba I'd suggest he probably has tort, and should sue.
Any sane, reasonable person needs to realize that if they don't own their own tools, they don't own their own livelihood. That's been a truth since the beginning.
Only the tools have changed.
Putting everything you own on someone else's computer because you can't be bothered to buy a USB drive is the sloppiest tier of laziness imaginable.
@homegrown @parisba that's why I switch to Linux instead of MacOS for replacing Windows
"I know I'm paranoid . . . but am I paranoid enough?"
That's why all of my Google stuff is backed up on my PC and on an external drive.
But the thought that all of the stuff you need to do your job might be blocked with no recourse . . . that's frightening.
@homegrown @parisba Sorry I can't do anything directly to help, but will monitor closely because my extended family and I have significant resources tied to Apple IDs, and 'tis the season to receive gift cards.
(I wonder if the lockout is due to the size of the gift card, and whether someone at $bigstore has done something stupid in the authorisation).
@homegrown @parisba
What is incomprehensible is that entire national & regional administrations & institutions still haven't sussed how to – or why they should – set up dedicated self-hosting & still default to Big Tech in repressive countries.
Wow ...
Just losing my photos would be the worst for me ... and why I don't rely on any cloud service .... they are regularly downloaded from phone, stored on my personal computer and USB ...
Edited ... Heard this morning about a bloke called Evan Ratliff who started his own company using AI, no humans ...
He has a podcast called The Shell Game on ABC ... haven't listened to it yet but will later ...
Good luck finding any humans ...
p.s. This part sums up a big problem in big tech:
"My Plea - I am asking for a human at Apple to review this case."
Big tech deliberately stops people being able to reach a human because they hate paying salaries to non-management. They try to automate everything.
By contrast, with community hosting you can always talk directly to the people who run your service. You might even know them in real life.
Similarly, with self-hosting you can fix it yourself or talk to people at hosting company.
@homegrown
There are cooperatives that organise professional managed IT services for members owned by members.
i.e.
https://www.hostsharing.net/
@homegrown exactly i see everyday the Gal that manage my server, i see her in the mirror every morning 😅
A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate
