Electronics

[Venezia]

@gadgetgal613 - I'm good with my own decision.

(ETA:  And I said I never back it up to the Cloud.  I never said I don't back it up to another private device.  I spent a career in I.T.)

[Mz iMac]

@Venezia  You are NOT alone.

I've NEVER used iCloud.  I for one have no need for it.

[Venezia]

@Mz iMac - My friends and former colleagues have a favorite phrase for the Cloud (and similar storage places):  "a hacker's paradise".  In other words, everyone's information in one convenient place.  Makes "shopping" so much easier.  

(And, yes, the Cloud has had more than one data breach, since its inception.)

But to each her own.  If some feel safer using the Cloud, that's fine.

[Mz iMac]

@Venezia   I remember one particular iCloud breach embarressed a lot of celebs whos NSFW photos & videos were posted online for all to see!   Some $$$$ were hacked also as well as crypto wallet(s) passwords.

I bet Tommy Lee & Pamela Anderson were  their you know what off.

[gadgetgal613]

Bcking up to the cloud is NOT the only choice.  My point was and is, you need a backup.  If your phone is stolen, lost or damaged, your data will be lost.  

[gardenman]

In general, cloud storage is safe and efficient. Now, if you're a celebrity, billionaire, or public figure, someone is likely to spend time trying to figure out your password (a lot of idiots use 

"password" as their password), and you could get hacked. If you keep your login information private and don't make it something obvious, you're fairly safe. If you're online bragging about your pet or child by name, and that's your password ("Fidosmom", etc.), then a hacker doesn't need to be a genius to figure out your password.

I've suspected the iCloud hack was more of a Genius Bar issue than a breach of the iCloud. Computer techs have a long history of copying files from phones/computers brought in for servicing/repairs. My suspicion is Apple had a tech at one of their Apple Store Genius Bars in the LA area copying files from the phones of celebs. Celebrities, by and large, aren't especially known for their advanced tech abilities. If something goes wrong on their phone/computer, then off it goes to the Apple store. And they'll trade in their old devices, assuming the store will wipe them. And they will, but maybe not until they've had a nice long look at what files are inside. 

All of the "hacking" came from the LA area, which makes me suspect Apple had a bad apple among their techs. Computer techs tend to have the biggest music and porn collections without ever having paid for any of it. They just copy the files from computers/phones brought in for service. Apple wouldn't want customers to know it was one of their techs stealing the information, so they blame it on the users having weak passwords. Which it could have also been. My money would still be on a rogue tech in a Genius Bar in the LA area being the culprit.

[Venezia]

A little research would show it's not just a bad actor in a Genius Bar.  (Of course, Apple would rather you not research it or know how many data breaches there have been.)

It's not really worth debating, as we all have our own opinions, but there have been people who've lost all of their photos (Apple said they couldn't recover them, so where's the backup  security in that?), their Apple Pay accounts have been hacked.

Not celebrities - just ordinary people who thought they were doing the best they could to protect their information.

And anything you put into iCloud is "out there".  You can never count on it being private again.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand - TracFone!  Which I still think is excellent (Verizon or no Verizon).

[MoJoV]

@Venezia  I did, after 3 phone calls and much fooling with texts to them.  They never explained what happened.  There was no reason on my part,  as for expired minutes, credit card problem, nothing like that.  My phone is old, I know I need a new one.  Just can't bring myself to get one. 

Thank you for asking.

[Venezia]

@MoJoV - I'm glad you at least got it sorted out.  Thanks for the update!

[willowbark]

@stevieb  My sim  card  stopped working too.  Every time I tried to place a call it said insert sim card  when it was never removed. Also, from tracfone. I  had a  lot of  minutes at  the time and I said  forget it and let it run out and now I just have a phone I can use for its flashlight if I have a power outage here at home.  

I had at the time Verizon but was going to drop them if my tracfone experience was good.   I was shocked  that  after reading so  many positive things  about them I got  a lemon. Took about a year of  having their phone and service before getting that  error  message.