I am not sure why this article is raging. Before I go into the Apple Store for a hardware issue, I backup my phone, and just erase it. They usually take an hour or so to fix it and I just restore it and I am up and running again. Am I missing something here?
I could have wiped it there and then, handed it over and later restored from last night's iCloud backup,
but I don't like not having a fully working outgoing device before doing a restore to a new one.
I also don't like the lag time due to poor Australian internet and
whilst I could have driven home and done a local backup to iTunes,
there's still the need to reconfigure a bunch of things that don't cleanly restore
- It's not really that difficult
- If you're really paranoid you can restore your backup into a second device (you aren't really paranoid if you don't have a second device)
- See point 1; it's so easy my mom could do it.
Can we please stop using the word "paranoid" with respect to security? Security doesn't happen by passing the responsibility back onto the user. I don't care if the actual task is "easy" (a subjective term); by judging levels of "paranoia", you are saying everyone should have to make a value judgment about the value of the data on their device, the probability that the store employee will attempt to abuse his or her position, and have enough education in the field of computer security to even begin evaluating the "value" of data.
The entire point of this article was that Apple shouldn't be requiring bad practices that require either teaching bad lessons or preexisting technical knowledge about the existence of and need for a workaround.
A good example of a similar principle are the modern rules for gun safety[1]. One rule is to never put your finger anywhere near the trigger area until just before you intend to fire. Nobody should be judging if a gun is safe, because accidents happen when someone makes an incorrect assumption or mistake. Instead, anybody handling firearms should be in the habit of following basic safety rules. Safety - aka "security" - happens by minimizing risk, and the way to get the average person to minimize risk is either by making failure modes impossible, or by teaching and encouraging good habits.
