Apple Is Holding My Pictures Hostage Until I Accept Their New Terms of Service
The author's iPad stopped playing videos after a software update, revealing that Apple had deleted local copies and moved them to iCloud without explicit consent. Access to the videos was restored only after agreeing to new terms of service, despite the author not having paid for iCloud storage. The experience highlights concerns over user control, data access, and opaque policy changes in cloud-based services.
- ▪Apple deleted local copies of the author's photos and videos, storing them in iCloud even though the author did not actively sign up for the service.
- ▪The author could not access their media until they agreed to new terms of service, effectively locking them out of their own content.
- ▪Changing iCloud settings to 'Download and Keep Originals' restored access, but only after accepting the updated agreement.
- ▪The terms of service do not clearly state that Apple can withhold user content when updating their policies.
- ▪The author notes that while individual actions like free iCloud backups may seem benign, the combined effect creates a coercive user experience.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
It started off a few months ago, when my iPad suddenly couldn’t play videos any more that it had recorded. It would show the first frame, but hitting the play button wouldn’t do anything. I googled around but couldn’t find anything. I had recently installed an update, so I figured I’ll just wait for the next update to fix things. But the next update didn’t fix things, and it turns out the reason is actually a little dystopian: Apple has deleted my local copies of my videos and will only give them back if I sign their new terms of service. You may have noticed that the preview pictures in the video above are often blurry. Soon after this, the pictures on my iPad also started looking oddly blurry.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Probably Dance.
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