Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

In recent versions of iOS, it literally says "Your carrier may charge for SMS messages used to activate iMessage" (or FaceTime or iCloud) ... so at least you know what's going on.

It also gives you the option to cancel before it sends the SMS.




> In recent versions of iOS, it literally says "Your carrier may charge for SMS messages used to activate iMessage" ... so at least you know what's going on.

Apple inc. should still ask for my consent before they spend my money. Just because they run some 'exclusive' black box messaging service doesn't mean they can pull shit like this.


Thats what they did, by asking for your confirmation.


From googling the popup earlier it looked to me like one of those 'i will dismiss this annoying popup straight away' type things.

When i spend bank money i have to enter my pin and authenticate. For my phone carrier money/credit i get no formal bank transaction screen like i do with Apple pay or similar. It's just a popup similar to those never-ending iOS update popups.

Why? Both are money. Why is spending bank money much more respected than spending phone carrier money?

Exploitation by telecoms has been normalized, so we still accept things like this happening (like OP having to buy €5 extra credit for being 5 cents 'short'). In Europe there are many more protections now, e.g. they also abolished extortionate roaming charges throughout Europe, but that took a very long time and we still have a long way to go.


> Exploitation by telecoms has been normalized

I wish we treated spectrum licenses like driver’s licenses: a privilege that can be taken away. And no, no refunds for the time and money you put into getting it.


I concur, but they do ask. But its not one of those annoying pop ups. It asked me once during my setup of my phone. I mean you are expected to see what you’re doing when you are setting your new phone?


It still seems to happen (2020 posts here):

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/404573/why-do-imes...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251223977

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250349230?answerId=2506... (2019 - iphone sending 16 int'l SMS/day trying to activate, $5/day in pakistan can be a lot)

Maybe they've ignored the popup, but the first and third examples definitely doesn't sound like that.

My guess is that Apple keeps a list of carriers that agreed to zero-rate these and keeps an on-phone index to determine whether to pop up that message, but what Apple thinks carriers do and what carriers actually do are 2 different things.


> My guess is that Apple keeps a list of carriers that agreed to zero-rate these and keeps an on-phone index to determine whether to pop up that message, but what Apple thinks carriers do and what carriers actually do are 2 different things

Lebara is an MVNO so it could also be an issue where the phone is applying the rules for the underlying network rather than the MVNO.

MVNOs in the country I live in have a lot of issues with iPhones applying the mainline network settings to the point where you had to manually install a specific provisioning profile just to get the APN settings right.


I would doubt the anonymity of iMessage thrice if activation pings with all the data are sent plaintext over China Mobile


It’s my hope they send it XOR’d with a one-time pad.


Typical Apple talk: instead of telling you they send a text message behind your back, they are blaming your carrier to charge for it.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: