Apple Punishes a Guy for Being a Victim. Sort of.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony brings a "horror story" from Apple. Daily News Stuff 19 December 2025: 12 Days Of Rechristmas Edition

People wonder why I don't like Apple. This is a particularly horrible example, but it is not isolated.

Do you think all of your photos, contacts, emails, etc. are safe because Apple is in control of everything? Don't trip over anything, not even something completely outside of your control.

The unfortunately named Paris Buttfield-Addison bought a $500 Apple gift card at a major Australian brick-and-mortar outlet.

Turns out the card had already been redeemed, and when he tried to redeem it, it was rejected.

The outlet agreed to provide a replacement gift card, so all was well.

Then Apple terminated his account and bricked all of his devices. (Hey.Paris)

   My Apple ID, which I have held for around 25 years (it was originally a username, before they had to be email addresses; it’s from the iTools era), has been permanently disabled. This isn't just an email address; it is my core digital identity. It holds terabytes of family photos, my entire message history, and is the key to syncing my work across the ecosystem.

   I effectively have over $30,000 worth of previously-active "bricked" hardware. My iPhone, iPad, Watch, and Macs cannot sync, update, or function properly. I have lost access to thousands of dollars in purchased software and media.

You might be thinking at this point that this guy is an idiot for giving a single company complete control over his personal and work life in this way.

You would be correct.

That's nice collection of tech gadgets you have there. Be a shame if anything happened to them.

The next story at the Daily Tech News (first link at top) is how Apple is not a computer company, it is a protection racket. It is a completely different story.

If you have stuff that is important to you, documents, family photos, your unfinished novel, whatever, you should have 3 copies of it, in different places, not under the control of one company.