I recently came across an interesting blog that discusses Apple’s policy that requires iPhones be purchased with a credit card. The blogger, David Berlind, attempted to purchase an iPhone with cash but was denied. He decided to do a bit of digging into the issue.
After leaving the store, Berlind learned that Apple had implemented this policy to make sure that no more than two iPhones were being sold to any one consumer at a time. The policy was put in place to prevent hackers from making changes to the phones that make it possible for them to be used with a company other than AT&T. Apparently, Apple has a contract with AT&T and has to make sure the contract is adhered to.
While I certainly understand Apple’s need to keep its contract safe, requiring purchases be made with a credit card in order to track consumer IDs is questionable to me and I can’t help but wonder if it’s even legal.
First of all, I don’t see how the credit card requirement is a foolproof method of keeping hackers at bay. After all, all they’d need is 2 different credit cards in order to stay within the two phone per person limit. Similarly, the man who did the investigation was told by the store manager that he might be able to purchase the phone with cash if they could be reasonably certain that he had not already purchased two phones. So there are certainly many loopholes that a person could explore to get their hands on two or more phones.
Let’s face it, if someone is skilled enough to hack into these phones and unlock them so a company other than AT&T can provide the service, they certainly won’t have a problem working around the two phone limit. In fact, it seems to me that this requirement would only encourage even more potentially fraudulent behavior.
The bigger issue, however, is whether or not Apple is following the terms and conditions established by the credit card industry. What information is the company actually garnishing from the credit cards and then maintaining? According to the PCI standards, only certain information required to complete the transaction can be obtained and this information is not to remain on record for a long period of time.
The credit card industry needs to react in some way to what Apple is doing. If consumers begin to feel even more uncomfortable about the type of information that’s being shared through their credit card companies and start to feel as if “Big Brother’s watching” their every move, the industry may very well experience a serious decline in card usage.
Berlind has already stated that he’s been in touch with Visa about this situation, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt for more people to reach out and express their displeasure to the major credit card companies as well.
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