An Unhappy Open Letter To Apple

Since Apple won’t let me publish this letter on their forums (It was thrown out of their user forums) I’ll take my chances in publishing it here instead.

My only aim is for someone senior enough at Apple to read it and take action.
Let’s see what happens. Feel free to hop on the bus and turn this ship around.


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Dear Apple.
I wish to express my great discomfort with your exclusion of USB/Bluetooth sync between Maverick and iOS7. To my astonishment I have abruptly realized that the company I've trusted to bring me better things in life, have taken a turn for the worse, forcing its users to use iCloud even if they don't want to.

I've been an Apple client since 1987 and have through my companies and advocacy to family, friends and associates generated millions upon millions of revenue for Apple. Seriously. Through the years my enterprises have been responsible for thousands of computers, printers, (you had those in the past), screens, laptops, iPhones, iPods, iPads, etc, etc...* It's through customers like me that Apple even survived the late 90's when your products where anything but best in class, yet the prices were way up there... We did stay loyal thou because we so much loved the basic concept of placing the user in the front seat which is what Apple technology has always done…

But now... I’m worried. The user in the front seat seems to have been abandoned. Not because iCloud isn’t great technology - it is!. But because this is not a technical issue, it's a philosophical and moral one. As such it relates to fundamental values in me as a human.
If it was only about a change of GUI or a change in my behaviour as a computer user, I’d be happy to comply. I have in the past, and once getting used to how Apple thinks things should be handled, I've adapted and been OK.
But this is not a change of behaviour it's a change of values and that's where I, and many with me, draw the line.
The idea of every single person that I know and every single appointment in my calendar being sent to a data center before returning to my cell phone is just not acceptable. If I trusted governments (and that goes for ALL governments - not just the US) I’d be happy to go along with transparent data. But so far, in the past 100 years, democratically elected governments are responsible for about 50 million more innocent deaths than any organised crime or terrorist network is, so I choose to be somewhat selective about who I share my personal data with.

I don't trust cloud services, period. Especially not in times where major IT players are under suspicion of supplying personal data to government agencies.

What you have forced upon us users is inconvenience and workflows many of us don’t trust.
Yes I should have read the Terms of Use and Update Notes before upgrading to Maverick. But for nearly 30 years (!) I’ve had no reason to doubt Apple’s integrity so I’ve simply trusted downloads without reading the fine print - never again!

Your reasons elude me. Big Data mining? Government agency compliance… why?
Others who don't mind can surely have it, but don't force me to use it against beliefs and values that are at the core of how I define myself and my freedom of choice! I will sacrifice convenience and ease of use for integrity any day of the week and to many of your most faithful client THIS IS an integrity issue.

If there isn't a fix, giving me, the user, back the power to choose for myself how and when I wish to synchronise my sensitive, personal data (calendar and contacts), then my journey with OSX will come to an end or I’ll start using smartphones from other users. There are alternatives out there and I will change my behaviour, adapt and even learn to live with lesser designs if necessary.
I'm giving until new year for Apple to bring back my freedom of choice before I start looking into other options.
*
Respectfully but disturbed and not very happy!
/Fnuffnert

If you had wanted someone senior enough at Apple to see your letter, why then didn't you direct it via email instead to their customer service or to Apple corporate headquarters?

I moved your open letter here to this forum where we post off topic subjects. I doubt seriously anyone senior at Apple monitors our forums, but I guess there's always that off chance.

Fnuffnert said:

I wish to express my great discomfort with your exclusion of USB/Bluetooth sync between Maverick and iOS7.

Click to expand...

Seems like you've been a relatively happy Apple customer since 1987. Why would you seemingly ignore 26 years of satisfied ownership...just because one thing that you would like Mavericks to do...isn't working for you.

Don't you think that you're over-reacting just a little bit??

- Nick

I don't believe it's over-reacting. Not even a little bit.

There are a lot of people that don't want everything they do, everyone they know, every place they travel, what music they listen to, movies they watch, books they read, what types of things they purchase to be available to just anyone that has access to some server out there some where.

I have to ask, what does 26 years of satisfied ownership matter when an operating system removes any way for you to sync your own personal information from one device to another without putting it out there on some server out in the wild blue where people you don't know, have never met, will never meet have access to it?

I want to know, why can't I sync my address book contact info from my own computer to my own phone without giving all that info to someone else?

And I don't care that it was a non-standard protocol that allowed me to do it in the past - I only want to do it now - without giving my private info and the private info of the people I know to 3rd parties. What right do those 3rd parties have in demanding the only way I can have my contacts on my phone (without having to manually put them all in - talk about going backwards) is by giving someone else that info?

There is no reason that anyone needs to know where I went to dinner 3 weeks ago Tuesday night - unless I give them that info.
There is no reason that info needs to be stored on a server in never never land in order for my gps to work.

I could go on...

Fnuffnert said:

To my astonishment I have abruptly realized that the company I've trusted to bring me better things in life, have taken a turn for the worse, forcing its users to use iCloud even if they don't want to.

Click to expand...

That's your fatal flaw - nothing in iOS forces you to use iCloud (source: I own two iOS devices, neither of which use iCloud).

Fnuffnert said:

But so far, in the past 100 years, democratically elected governments are responsible for about 50 million more innocent deaths than any organised crime or terrorist network is, so I choose to be somewhat selective about who I share my personal data with.

Click to expand...

You must have some really interesting contact info.

I sync my iOS7 iPhone with USB all the time. I didn't realize you could do it with Bluetooth... but I'd say if you're truly paranoid, putting your data out, over the air probably defeats the point.

Am I missing something?

I have to say I am not thrilled about it. People break into "secure" servers and data centers daily. I am not a Cloud fan in the least. Regardless of who's running it. Also not a fan of Facebook, sadly I do use it. Same difference none the less.

But honest question would be, does the datacenter keep the information. Or simply pass the information along to the device(s) connected to the iCloud.

Now regardless if the information is stored on the cloud for any given amount of time. Honestly this is just terribly inefficient data management. In a world where users are charge so much for bandwidth and amount of data downloaded from the net. This could be costly. Many iPhone users who may use this service as well don't have Data contracts and only use their phone for basic apps and phone service. This would force them to have expensive data contracts for something they didn't have to have in the past. Beside, syncing this information via blue tooth in your home saves bandwidth and can be more secure.

Not to mention, those who are traveling may make key notes for a speech on the macbook then want to transfer it to the tablet. If they don't have internet, they can't.. So IMHO this is just bad idea.

There is just to much Cloud and internet requirements for computers these days. I was brought up when the internet was Arpanet and only a few select colleges had access to it. While I was happy to get internet in high school days, I now think the world is to network connected. I hate to see the day when I can't even log into my own computers without internet. There has to be a stoping point.

Exodist said:

But honest question would be, does the datacenter keep the information. Or simply pass the information along to the device(s) connected to the iCloud.

Click to expand...

They have to (here's a discussion of how information is stored on the servers). It would be impossible to service otherwise. Think of it this way - say you push out a new contact on your iPhone but your iPad isn't on. if it's not stored on the server, where would it go? How would the iPad know there is a new contact? If this is possible, I'd love to know how!

Exodist said:

Honestly this is just terribly inefficient data management. In a world where users are charge so much for bandwidth and amount of data downloaded from the net. This could be costly.

Click to expand...

I suppose but it's important to consider what's being synced. First, only new/modified information is synced across devices. Second, much of that contact is low bandwidth. Calendar appointments, contact info, etc. are all text based. One of my larger vCards is only 49KB which would only have to be synced in its entirety once. If you had 1000 contacts with as much details as the one I sized up (two phone numbers, four email addresses, home address and a short note), that would be 49MB of syncing. Once synced (wi-fi perhaps?), you'd have small syncs after that. I imagine calendar appointments would similar in fashion.

Exodist said:

Not to mention, those who are traveling may make key notes for a speech on the macbook then want to transfer it to the tablet. If they don't have internet, they can't.. So IMHO this is just bad idea.

Click to expand...

You can sync documents without a network connection.

Exodist said:

There is just to much Cloud and internet requirements for computers these days

Click to expand...

It's a blessing and a curse. It certainly isn't the perfect solution for everything but it sure makes a lot of life a lot more convenient. To each their their on.

vansmith said:

That's your fatal flaw - nothing in iOS forces you to use iCloud (source: I own two iOS devices, neither of which use iCloud).

Click to expand...

I'd be real interested in learning how to sync contacts between 10.9 and iOS 7 without iCloud.

If you're looking not to use iCloud specifically, you can use Google's contact syncing. If you're looking to avoid the cloud altogether, DeviceSync will do calendar (here though it's one way) or you could set up a simple CalDAV or CardDAV server on your local machine (here's one). You could also get Mavericks Server and click your way through creating a local server on your Mac.

Admittedly, many of the solutions say to use Google instead which, for this conversation, defeats the purpose if you're looking to avoid cloud based services. Also, many of my solutions aren't elegant (easy) - they get the job done and have some nice benefits (wireless syncing on your network and seamless sync between devices) but they aren't intuitive.

Also, as an aside, there's a certain irony in seeing this all unravel especially in light of those fallacious complaints that Android forces you to sync info with Google.

As I understand the issue, the deprecated SyncService was discontinued in the initial release of 10.9.

I would bet serious money that Apple will restore local sync in a future update. I believe we're in a transition period, not a permanent change. As much as Apple likes and wants people to use iCloud, it understands that some people will not and thus turn it off but still need to get contacts/etc over to mobile devices. If nothing else, enterprise users would force such an option if Apple wasn't already switching over to one already.

In short, relax and breathe out, folks. Give it a little time, write Tim Cook a polite letter on the topic, watch what happens. I think ultimately this will be a tempest in a teacup (as have so many little crises before this).

Chas_m has a good point. 10.9 is a new release. Just as past versions like previous 10.8 gained features and bug fixes as patches were released. I suspect 10.9 will as well. Also, from a developers standpoint. Often existing features may conflict with newer ones. The company has to decide which is more important to release to the public. If the company gets miss directed, then a polite letter can be what they are looking for in forms of feedback. Tim Cook seems like a good and understandable person who cares about what his customers think. He not an idiot like Steve Balmer..

I agree to Fnuffnert.

We trusted Apple as a serious provider of operating systems, practical facilities and expensive but nice computers of various kinds. We did not expect Apple to venture into the kind of business where whoever it may be are encouraged to spy on their customers. It is sick and bad business.

At no point are you required to use these services. Simply skip iCloud sync and move on.

Nick wrote ..... Seems like you've been a relatively happy Apple customer since 1987. Why would you seemingly ignore 26 years of satisfied ownership...just because one thing that you would like Mavericks to do...isn't working for you.
Don't you think that you're over-reacting just a little bit??
........................................................................................

Nick, I have great respect for you as a Mac techie but I think you may have missed the point here.
Just consider that you have a friend that you met at Junior school. All through your school days you helped each other to get through exams and suchlike. Then you both joined the Army and trained for all eventualities. You were both sent to Afghanistan where you saved each other's lives more than once. Then you came back home and your best friend went to the town centre and used a shotgun to kill 10 people.
Question ..... Do you still trust him like you did while you were both still in the Army?
OK, I know it's extreme to say the least but the basic facts could happen in real life.

5tevie said:

OK, I know it's extreme to say the least but the basic facts could happen in real life.

Click to expand...

That's a false equivalency, not extreme comparison. A technological change in an application and a murderous rampage are not equivalent in character, nature or consequence. One is about forcing you to use a feature and the other is about the moral and human implications of life and death.

A better analogy would be something along the lines of the following: "you and your friend used to study in two different spots but then she said that she only wanted to study in one. Would you still study with her?" The triviality of this analogy is important.

What's the typical use for iCloud syncing? Contacts and calendar. Jeez guys, careful with that highly classified and sensitive info...everyone is just begging to steal it. Seriously, put it into perspective. People will probably get just as much info off your Facebook page.

Where I'd agree on exercising caution is with iCloud Keychain, or any cloud-based service that would allow someone to gain access to passwords, banking details, etc. Here there's real risk.

I'm going to say this boring speech: I think that we need to understand that the world is changing, replacing our old ways of doing things with ultimately better options. We used to work on CRTs, now we use LCDs; laptops and now iPads; bank books, then bank cards; paper/plastic identity cards and now smart cards...and so on. It is the way of the world. Consider the change before jumping on it, but keep perspective.

Brace yourselves...here comes van....

Checco said:

Where I'd agree on exercising caution is with iCloud Keychain, or any cloud-based service that would allow someone to gain access to passwords, banking details, etc. Here there's real risk.

Click to expand...

Although I disagree that contacts and calendars are rather innocuous (I imagine that some people have sensitive info for each of those but I, like you, don't care too much about mine), I whole heartedly agree about this. iCloud Keychain, in theory, is a great idea but is a disaster waiting to happen. No service is secure and given that Apple has the master decryption key for all content on iCloud (source), you can bet that it's possible that it can be retrieved by someone else. Is it likely? Who knows how likely it is but the fact that it is suggests that some caution should be exercised. This goes for all internet based credit transactions though so this is certainly nothing specific to Apple.

What Apple really needs to do is start pushing two factor authentication (actually, this goes for all services that offer it). It's not a perfect solution but it goes a long way to adding a convenient layer of security that is reasonably effective.

Checco said:

Brace yourselves...here comes van....

Click to expand...

It's no fun if you prepare for it and know that I'm coming.

vansmith said:

Although I disagree that contacts and calendars are rather innocuous (I imagine that some people have sensitive info for each of those but I, like you, don't care too much about mine), I whole heartedly agree about this. iCloud Keychain, in theory, is a great idea but is a disaster waiting to happen. No service is secure and given that Apple has the master decryption key for all content on iCloud (source), you can bet that it's possible that it can be retrieved by someone else. Is it likely? Who know how likely it is but the fact that it does suggests that some caution should be exercised. This goes for all internet based credit transactions though so this is certainly nothing specific to Apple.

What Apple really needs to do is start pushing two factor authentication (actually, this goes for all services that offer it). It's not a perfect solution but it goes a long way to adding a convenient layer of security that is reasonably effective.

It's no fun if you prepare for it and know that I'm coming.

Click to expand...

They figured you out Van! Grin

I agree with you said about about iCloud Keychain. I am hoping I am wrong but as it sits I bet someone will hack the server and get all kinds of passwords. My Keychain is safe on my Mac!

Never mind. other posts interceded.