CBC:
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.
“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.
Experts warn this is a growing problem, as more people die leaving important information and valuable digital property on computers and electronic devices.
The news media is typically and gleefully playing up this story (it will get resolved by Apple without any court order required), it does bring forward some of the issues we are and will continue to have with our digital lives.
This is a little odd. I had an employee with a company owned iPhone 6+ die 2 weeks ago. All the Apple Store asked for was a death certificate from his son and they were able to unlock the phone and pull all the pictures off of it for his family. I’m not sure how they accomplished this, but within a week of his death they had all of his personal information off the phone and returned it to me so I could send it to our IT group.
Maybe a Canadian or British Columbia law?
It’s interesting they could get everything. I was of the understanding even Apple couldn’t get beyond a passcode and encryption. Or is that just the TouchID or iCloud Lock?
Perhaps one needs to ask the question why she didn’t know her husband’s password…? Was he trying to hide something from her? If she’s 72 and they were still married one would presume it was for a pretty long time. Why wouldn’t they trust each other enough not to have to lock each other off their devices? My point really is: If he didn’t want her to access whatever’s on there while he was alive, why should his death force Apple to stop respecting his wish?
I’ve got all my passwords in a password manager and my wife knows my master password, and if she didn’t I would ensure it was in my will or a safety deposit box or something.
Even so, I believe being married — unless you put something in the will — gives the surviving spouse access to everything in order to get the deceased’s affairs in order. Again, I’m sure it has much to do with state (or provincial in this case) laws.
This might be of use, but I’m not at work to actually read through it: http://wiki.clicklaw.bc.ca/index.php/What_Happens_When_Your_Spouse_Dies_(Script_150)
Unless it’s changed in a more recent iOS release, the camera roll isn’t/wasn’t protected by encryption. And even if it is now, the entirety of your data’s only a password reset away assuming you’re signed into and backing up to iCloud. (Thus the value of enabling two-factor authentication.)
I’d agree with that. But I think that’s a decision for the law to make, not a commercial entity. Hence the request for the court order being reasonable, I believe. It’s not like they’re refusing. They’re just covering their asses.
Not trying to be an Apple fanboi or anything. I realize this is a sticky issue, and there may not be a definitively right answer. But I think if I was in Tim’s shoes, I’d request the court order too. I’d do everything I could to make facilitating that as easy as possible, for the sake of the widow, but I’d still require it I think, just to cover my ass.
My wife and I keep everything in 1Password and share our vaults – it’s pretty easy. However most people never think about this.
My guess is that they asked for his password, which of course they’re not getting.
However, they asked the wrong question, and the ensuing media storm caused the right question to emerge: How do I take control of this account? And the answer was probably iForgot, or whatever it’s called now: the password reset tool. As his widow, she likely has access to the recovery email address. And that’s all it takes.
But you’ll never read this. The existing story has a villain, and the true story doesn’t.
Someone I know recently closed out a 403b from a former employer’s benefit account, with the intention of transferring it to a rollover IRA. But because that account-holder was a married woman, the first institution required a notarized affidavit from the account-holder’s husband, confirming approval of this transfer, before it could be implemented.
Mind you, this happened in 2015, within a western culture that generally allows women to vote, own property, and walk around in public unaccompanied by a male relative in a handlebar mustache.
Some institutions need to cover their asses. Others seem to be merely holding on to operating rules first drafted in the 1850s.
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They did ask for a password reset and were told not to. If it was really the case of her asking the wrong question, they would have told her that they can’t do it, not that she needed a court order.
It makes sense to me. Apple can’t trigger a password reset. That’s up to you, with what you know.
She wanted to have his Apple ID reset so she could keep using it. She already had the password to the device.
Exactly, Apple doesn’t know what his wishes were and if he were deliberately keeping his Apple ID password from her, then she doesn’t have a right to it.
Your defense makes zero sense. If that was the case, why didn’t they tell her to go to iForgot instead of go get a court order?
I feel like something is likely left out of this tale or poorly told. Like some local law or her just not understanding what she was being asked for.
or why she didn’t have access to the email connected to the account. most folks use the same one as their personal email and have on their device also.
that’s why I said something feels like details have been left out. because it should have been super easy for her to just do the password reset to his email.
I didn’t say it was excusable. In fact, in other posts on the subject I’ve said it wasn’t. But yes, I missed that in this one.