Security Kindergarten ?

Question

Level 1

23 points

Security Kindergarten ?

Apple staff removed my previous post because I vented my anger about Apple's security policies.

I try to be less polemic.

Just a few months ago I purchased a Mac Air via the Apple store. At that time I was staying in Australia and I paid with my European credit card.

Today, while being again in Australia I wanted to download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Surprise, surprise !

First surprise : App Store Australia does not accept my European credit card !

Second surprise: For security reasons App Store forced me to answer three silly questions such as "where did your parents meet?' Both my parents are dead, shall I ask the Lord where they met ? Is it unreasonable to ask if this is kindergarten ?

Question to the community:

Are there alternatives to obtaining software updates ? Can I walk into a physical Apple Store and buy 10.8. on a USB stick ?

Regards,

Twistan

Mac mini (Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Nov 15, 2012 4:10 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

141,390 points

Nov 15, 2012 4:42 PM in response to Twistan

Both my parents are dead, shall I ask the Lord where they met ?

You can ask. Perhaps He will answer. It may work. Who can argue with success?

As far as I know your parents met in Heaven. Why not supply that answer? It works as well as anything else (except you just informed the rest of the world of that security question).

Can I walk into a physical Apple Store and buy 10.8. on a USB stick ?

No, but if you walk into a physical Apple Store with a Mac you can download Mountain Lion and subsequently create your own USB memory-stick resident installer for use on all your Macs.

Apple explains here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848

Your European credit card will not be accepted elsewhere "for your security". You have to find another way of funding your Store account if you are going to use the Store beyond the old country.

... Is it unreasonable to ask if this is kindergarten ?

You might as well ask the Lord that too, because asking here is considerably more futile.

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Answer 2

Twistan Author

Level 1

23 points

Nov 15, 2012 7:39 PM in response to John Galt

Maybe I should send a message to Steve Jobs on iCloud to quiz my parents if he meets them ?

Joking aside, Apple is the only company I know that refuses payment with a credit card that is not linked to the postal address of a store account.

All those who "live and work" globally are forced to create different App Store ID's with a matching credit card,

to have different login ID's and passwords and last but not least to have three security questions/answers for each account.

This is indeed global thinking on Apple's side.

Even PayPal allows me to pay with any credit card and to use different billing and shipping addresses.

I find Apple's approach to solve their security problems unworthy of one the biggest IT's firms. I would be ashamed. But, as long as we customers put up with it why should Apple accomodate and oblige us?

Regards,

Twistan

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Answer 3

HACKINT0SH

Level 5

5,810 points

Nov 15, 2012 9:24 PM in response to Twistan

s it unreasonable to ask if this is kindergarten ?

Engineers added this feature for your protection, due to the growing fraud cases.

If you purchase an item for the first time on a computer/device, you must answere the questions. If this feature were not there, and you got screwed over in some way, you'd be the first to complain why they had no such protection....

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Answer 4

Twistan Author

Level 1

23 points

Nov 16, 2012 12:59 AM in response to HACKINT0SH

I have bank accounts plus PayPal accounts with four banks in three countries, plus PayPal.

None of them imposes such stringent security policies for making payments.

Does this not indicate that all these banks and PayPal have smarter software engineers than Apple ?

Just a thought.

Regards,

Twistan

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