Lawfirm considers suit over iPhone's Touch ID-connected 'Error 53'

AppleInsider

A Seattle-based lawfirm is considering a class action lawsuit against Apple, following reports of an "Error 53" message some iPhone owners have seen after having unofficial repairs done on their Touch ID sensor.

The firm, PCVA, is investigating the option, and soliticting complaints from people affected by the glitch, The Guardian said on Monday. The message is triggered if people get unauthorized repairs that affect the Touch ID sensor, and then try to update or restore their iPhone. At that stage the phone is rendered both unusable and ineligible for warranty coverage.

"We believe Apple may be intentionally forcing users to use their repair services, which cost much more than most third-party repair shops," PCVA claimed, noting that the public would find it unacceptable if carmakers forced drivers to bring vehicles into an official dealership for service.

The firm said it would represent any affected people coming forward for free.

In its defense, Apple has said that it's trying to protect the security of users. Touch ID normally saves data in a component known as the Secure Enclave, and in theory unofficial parts could be used to steal a user's fingerprint. During official repairs Apple re-validates the pairing between the Touch ID sensor and the Enclave.

The company is asking people impacted by Error 53 to contact Apple Support, but to date the only known solution has been to get a replacement iPhone.

maestro64

Yeah we knew this was coming, but if the error is due to the fact the touch ID and secure elements are linked together for security purposes there is not a whole lot they can argue about going to a non-authorized repair places. Also warranty repairs are free so their is no cost impact to the user to get something fixed under warranty. This issue only applies to those phones outside warranty, so you warranty is not violated when it is already outside of the warranty period. Looks like this lawyers do not understand US warranty laws.

It is kind of like being upset you can not take your electronic safe to anyone you like to change the locking mechanism and when you do and they screw it up and thief break into your safe and steal all your valuables you want to sue the safe manufacturer. We all know how the courts will rule in that case.

With that said, I would still be upset I could not repaid my own Iphone. I have done my fair share of repairs on old Iphones, done batteries, broken displays, and home buttons. I guess this is one things I will not be repairing myself when I am out of warranty.

msantti

Non-authorized repair.

Oh well.

tundraboy

Without a doubt Apple totally mishandled this by pulling the stunt out of the blue and should pay the piper for it.  But to say this is a ploy to promote Apple's repair service is a stretch.  It appears, the only repairs affected are those that tamper with the Touch ID system.  Insisting that any outfit should be able to repair the Touch ID system is like allowing any Tom Dick and Harry to service the local ATM.  Or allowing an unlicensed, unbonded "security contractor" to set up or repair your home security system.  If you do the latter, then you deserve the burglary that happens the next day.

jungmark

Frak the greedy lawyers. 

sflocal

AppleInsider said:

A Seattle-based lawfirm is considering a class action lawsuit against Apple...

Translated: "A Seattle-based lawfirm is chasing ambulances..."

sflocal

tundraboy said:

Without a doubt Apple totally mishandled this by pulling the stunt out of the blue and should pay the piper for it.  

Nonsense... most people will have their iPhones repaired by Apple.  That's a no-brainer. 

I never even thought about the issues of repairing the TouchID system.  It's nice that Apple put a lot of thought into the security system and to me, it makes total sense that replacing TouchID by some stranger should brick the phone.  Honestly, I think its a great idea.  They did it to keep us - the consumers - safe, and not some conspiracy ploy.

Honestly, why is this even an issue?  Makes perfect sense to me why it works the way it does, and if it is explained properly to any customer affected, I'm sure they would be completely understanding by it.  Take it to an authorized repair facility and be done with it.  If there is not one near you, too effin bad!

suddenly newton

Will somebody please think of the Apple users!

Rayz2016

tundraboy said:

Without a doubt Apple totally mishandled this by pulling the stunt out of the blue and should pay the piper for it. 

Yes, Apple should have realised that some people are stupid enough to take an £800 gadget to an alleyway repair shop. These are the same knuckle-draggers who look for the cheapest laser eye surgery clinics. 

SpamSandwich

"Considering a suit"? No one cares about a threatened lawsuit. They are fishing for clients in hopes of filing a class-action. If only a small number of people have ever had such a "problem", they have nothing.

steviet02

sflocal said:

tundraboy said:

Without a doubt Apple totally mishandled this by pulling the stunt out of the blue and should pay the piper for it.  

Nonsense... most people will have their iPhones repaired by Apple.  That's a no-brainer. 

I never even thought about the issues of repairing the TouchID system.  It's nice that Apple put a lot of thought into the security system and to me, it makes total sense that replacing TouchID by some stranger should brick the phone.  Honestly, I think its a great idea.  They did it to keep us - the consumers - safe, and not some conspiracy ploy.

Honestly, why is this even an issue?  Makes perfect sense to me why it works the way it does, and if it is explained properly to any customer affected, I'm sure they would be completely understanding by it.  Take it to an authorized repair facility and be done with it.  If there is not one near you, too effin bad!

Nonsense! Replacing the Touch-ID with HW that is appropriate should just clear all the secure information in the ID chip and erase all Apple Pay information, not render the phone useless. The user then has to start over entering fingerprints and CC information, assuming they know the iCloud account that was tied to the phone. Why is that such a big deal for Apple to deal with?

lkrupp

steviet02 said:

sflocal said:

Nonsense... most people will have their iPhones repaired by Apple.  That's a no-brainer. 

I never even thought about the issues of repairing the TouchID system.  It's nice that Apple put a lot of thought into the security system and to me, it makes total sense that replacing TouchID by some stranger should brick the phone.  Honestly, I think its a great idea.  They did it to keep us - the consumers - safe, and not some conspiracy ploy.

Honestly, why is this even an issue?  Makes perfect sense to me why it works the way it does, and if it is explained properly to any customer affected, I'm sure they would be completely understanding by it.  Take it to an authorized repair facility and be done with it.  If there is not one near you, too effin bad!

Nonsense! Replacing the Touch-ID with HW that is appropriate should just clear all the secure information in the ID chip and erase all Apple Pay information, not render the phone useless. The user then has to start over entering fingerprints and CC information, assuming they know the iCloud account that was tied to the phone. Why is that such a big deal for Apple to deal with?

Because you know exactly how this all works? Talk about a knee-jerk blame Apple troll.

SpamSandwich

steviet02 said:

sflocal said:

Nonsense... most people will have their iPhones repaired by Apple.  That's a no-brainer. 

I never even thought about the issues of repairing the TouchID system.  It's nice that Apple put a lot of thought into the security system and to me, it makes total sense that replacing TouchID by some stranger should brick the phone.  Honestly, I think its a great idea.  They did it to keep us - the consumers - safe, and not some conspiracy ploy.

Honestly, why is this even an issue?  Makes perfect sense to me why it works the way it does, and if it is explained properly to any customer affected, I'm sure they would be completely understanding by it.  Take it to an authorized repair facility and be done with it.  If there is not one near you, too effin bad!

Nonsense! Replacing the Touch-ID with HW that is appropriate should just clear all the secure information in the ID chip and erase all Apple Pay information, not render the phone useless. The user then has to start over entering fingerprints and CC information, assuming they know the iCloud account that was tied to the phone. Why is that such a big deal for Apple to deal with?

If the Touch ID enclave has been compromised AT ALL the phone needs to be bricked.

roake

What do you call a hundred dead lawyers at the bottom of a river?

A good start...

plovell

steviet02 said:

sflocal said:

Nonsense... most people will have their iPhones repaired by Apple.  That's a no-brainer. 

I never even thought about the issues of repairing the TouchID system.  It's nice that Apple put a lot of thought into the security system and to me, it makes total sense that replacing TouchID by some stranger should brick the phone.  Honestly, I think its a great idea.  They did it to keep us - the consumers - safe, and not some conspiracy ploy.

Honestly, why is this even an issue?  Makes perfect sense to me why it works the way it does, and if it is explained properly to any customer affected, I'm sure they would be completely understanding by it.  Take it to an authorized repair facility and be done with it.  If there is not one near you, too effin bad!

Nonsense! Replacing the Touch-ID with HW that is appropriate should just clear all the secure information in the ID chip and erase all Apple Pay information, not render the phone useless. The user then has to start over entering fingerprints and CC information, assuming they know the iCloud account that was tied to the phone. Why is that such a big deal for Apple to deal with?

Maybe. I don't know whether Keychain info might be compromised. I would be happier if the phone had to be restored after the re-pair.

rob53

Here's their Facebook site looking for affected iPhone users, https://www.facebook.com/pcvalaw. Interesting, they reference forums.macrumors.com, posted 2 hrs ago. 

http://www.pcvalaw.com Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, seems like they concentrate on class action lawsuits. I'm not saying they're ambulance chasers and I understand why  they pursued some of their cases, but it would be nice if they actually did some research into this event before they jumped onto Facebook to look for people who won't get much out of it while they get a lot. I can also understand why they don't bother pursuing any litigation against Android-based mobile devices because they already know there's no money to be made. 

(Six male partners, four male associates and two token female associates. Maybe someone should talk to them about diversity.)

brakken

SpamSandwich said:

"Considering a suit"? No one cares about a threatened lawsuit. They are fishing for clients in hopes of filing a class-action. If only a small number of people have ever had such a "problem", they have nothing.

And it's kind of disgusting that AI is advertising for them. 

mac_128

tundraboy said:

Without a doubt Apple totally mishandled this by pulling the stunt out of the blue and should pay the piper for it.  But to say this is a ploy to promote Apple's repair service is a stretch.  It appears, the only repairs affected are those that tamper with the Touch ID system.  Insisting that any outfit should be able to repair the Touch ID system is like allowing any Tom Dick and Harry to service the local ATM.  Or allowing an unlicensed, unbonded "security contractor" to set up or repair your home security system.  If you do the latter, then you deserve the burglary that happens the next day.

From what I've read, this is affecting some brand new and refurbished iPhones out of the box, as well as some which have had "authorized" repair work performed. There's seemingly more going on here than just someone getting what they deserve because they went to an "unauthorized" Apple repair shop to get out of warranty work done for less than Apple charges.

applesos

steviet02 said:

sflocal said:

Nonsense... most people will have their iPhones repaired by Apple.  That's a no-brainer. 

I never even thought about the issues of repairing the TouchID system.  It's nice that Apple put a lot of thought into the security system and to me, it makes total sense that replacing TouchID by some stranger should brick the phone.  Honestly, I think its a great idea.  They did it to keep us - the consumers - safe, and not some conspiracy ploy.

Honestly, why is this even an issue?  Makes perfect sense to me why it works the way it does, and if it is explained properly to any customer affected, I'm sure they would be completely understanding by it.  Take it to an authorized repair facility and be done with it.  If there is not one near you, too effin bad!

Nonsense! Replacing the Touch-ID with HW that is appropriate should just clear all the secure information in the ID chip and erase all Apple Pay information, not render the phone useless. The user then has to start over entering fingerprints and CC information, assuming they know the iCloud account that was tied to the phone. Why is that such a big deal for Apple to deal with?

Because an illegitimate fingerprint sensor could be added to the phone using this method and then gain access to your information? This isn't complicated; I'll never understand how the media manages to spin everything into being the end of the world.

rob53

steviet02 said:

sflocal said:

Nonsense... most people will have their iPhones repaired by Apple.  That's a no-brainer. 

I never even thought about the issues of repairing the TouchID system.  It's nice that Apple put a lot of thought into the security system and to me, it makes total sense that replacing TouchID by some stranger should brick the phone.  Honestly, I think its a great idea.  They did it to keep us - the consumers - safe, and not some conspiracy ploy.

Honestly, why is this even an issue?  Makes perfect sense to me why it works the way it does, and if it is explained properly to any customer affected, I'm sure they would be completely understanding by it.  Take it to an authorized repair facility and be done with it.  If there is not one near you, too effin bad!

Nonsense! Replacing the Touch-ID with HW that is appropriate should just clear all the secure information in the ID chip and erase all Apple Pay information, not render the phone useless. The user then has to start over entering fingerprints and CC information, assuming they know the iCloud account that was tied to the phone. Why is that such a big deal for Apple to deal with?

I suggest watching this developers video, Keychain and Authentication with Touch ID, https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/enterprise-711/, which I believe is now available to everyone, to understand what's going one with Touch ID and the secure enclave. There's a whole lot more to Touch ID's use of the secure enclave than just Apple Pay/credit cards and fingerprints.

My analogy to this issue is someone losing their house key, calling a lock repairperson who drills out the lock, replaces the lock with a new lock and calls everything good. The problem is, once that lock is broken, anyone can get in (until it's replaced) and the lock repairperson could keep the key pattern and make new keys to get into your house at a later date. Apple creates a unique pair of keys, both of which need to be present, in order to unlock the phone. If your Touch ID assembly is bad, Apple or one of its authorized repair centers has the ability to re-key or pair the new Touch ID module to the iPhone. If it's done wrong (it doesn't matter who's doing it wrong), the data in the secure enclave, which contains all the passwords and encryption keys necessary to decrypt your phone, should be deleted. No way I want someone being able to get to the data on my phone, which also includes logons and passwords to Safari websites. Like I said, there's more to this security configuration than you're talking about.

One last thing. If you want Apple to expand their presence into the enterprise, health and government environment, the way Apple has configured Touch ID and the secure enclave goes a long way, like a 450-ft home run, towards getting their hardware approved, including for classified operations. Without the ability to keep non-authorized personnel from accessing government or enterprise secure information or medical information (HIPAA) Apple will have a hard time maintaining any presence in these areas. With it, and I believe they're the only manufacturers who can document a secure mobile device, they could rule these businesses. Is it worth a couple bricked iPhones? To me it is.  

cogitodexter

Hmm. Someone uses non-genuine parts to attempt a repair to a critical part of their iPhone and then they wonder why it doesn't work afterwards? And then they seek to take it to court? If I were the judge, I'd laugh at them and then point them swiftly in the direction of the door. (I'd do that regardless of what manufacturers were involved)

When it comes to unauthorised repairs, there's only one rule: Caveat Emptor.