Forced Apple ID security questions for App store - why?

It becomes obvious that you don't really want a solution, you just want to complain.

Actually, I solved the problem with Apple over the phone, no thanks to you. After having a lengthy discussion with them and reading them some of your comments, they apologized for your behaviour and helped me through the issue with good ideas and suggestions.

Also, you have breached the following rule in the ToS:

2. Be polite. Everyone should feel comfortable reading Submissions and participating in discussions. Apple will not tolerate flames or other inappropriate statements, material, or links. Most often, a "flame" is simply a statement that is taunting and thus arbitrarily inflammatory. However, this also includes those which are libelous, defamatory, indecent, harmful, harassing, intimidating, threatening, hateful, objectionable, discriminatory, abusive, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, or offensive in a sexual, racial, cultural, or ethnic context.

Have a nice day.

It becomes obvious that you don't really want a solution, you just want to complain.

I've already recieved a solution, as I stated above.

Then why aren't you sharing it with the others?

Have them take it up with Apple Support.

So your only purpose here was to rant about the issue and to personally attack the solution that I offered because you didn't like it.

Alex3087 wrote:

Actually, I solved the problem with Apple over the phone, no thanks to you. After having a lengthy discussion with them [...] they helped me through the issue with good ideas and suggestions.

Would you mind sharing what those were? It would be a big help to those having similar issues, as well as allow (some of) us to help people better.

I asked them if it would be a good idea to answer all of the questions with one answer, so it would be like having a second password to recover the first. The gentleman on the phone told me it wouldn't be the best way, but that it would be a good workaround for someone of my age to use.

I am done discussing the matter with you as you have been rude and threatening throughout this entire ordeal.

It is obvious to anyone who actually reads the thread that I haven't. Your first comment in this thread was to attack me because you disagreed with my opinion on the issue.

Everyone else who has made a comment has been "attacking" you, aside from stevejobsfan0123. With that, I am done.

Alex3087 wrote:

I asked them if it would be a good idea to answer all of the questions with one answer, so it would be like having a second password to recover the first. The gentleman on the phone told me it wouldn't be the best way, but that it would be a good workaround for someone of my age to use.

Alex,

I'm pretty sure that won't work. I tried that and recevied an error that my answers can not be the same.

Jim

I agree. In fact, I fee so strongly about this that I activated my apple account, just to write this post!

My complaints to apple security and customer service teams are:

I think this is badly done, annoying, an ambush, and offensive.

I had the same "is this phishing?' response.

I have just had 15 minutes of my time wasted, in a way I could not postpone. This is not good service, this is pushy security nagging and spyware.

The questions are completely inflexible and amateurish, and have assumptions in them, for example 'has owned a car'. plus, to add to the foolishness, the questions do not even encourage repeatable answers. IE, answer to 'favourite job' is never going to be a single word, or series of numbers. So unprofessional.

Sad work whoever cooked this up, sad.

I hope this will be fixed as soon as possible, what a fail!

100% agree, neb.

It's implemented so badly, so unexpectedly, and so obtrusively - I am just stunned.

Badly:

When working with data, it's axiomatic that "garbage in, garbage out." Some unleashed working group at Apple flipped that on its head here. With no flexibility to their mandated, intrusive questions, garbage choices will invariably yield garbage answers: answers that people cannot remember (see above), answers that are all identical (see above), answers that people feel violated providing (see above), answers that Apple will have to pay customer service reps to tell customers to fake (see above). This isn't security, this is legal compliance - sadly illustrative of the fact that protection from legal action has nearly completely substitued for care and common sense in the past generation.

Unexpectedly:

Even Google, the undisputed king of TMI, gives you an option to kick these type of requests down the road (no, Google, I still don't care to give you my phone number), and staggers out their intrusive requests. Apple, somehow, decided it's not completely insane to decide to lock customers out of any new purchases until they are willing to divulge information out their first kiss, childhood friends, and parents' romantic history. Only this is rather insane... and inane.

Obtrusively:

Kind of covered already.

In summary: I've already gone back to buying physical media on this new-release Tuesday - given that I'm tied into the Apple ecosystem with the App store and whatnot, I'll probably end up making up some answers and writing them down in 1Password. But at the lasting cost of my trust in Apple to treat its customers and data with actual care. Sad. Whoever is responsible for this is *terrible* at his job.