An Apple Facility That Repairs iPhones in California Won't Stop Calling 9-1-1 -- and Nobody Knows How To Stop It (businessinsider.com) 190
The small city of Elk Grove, California received more than 2,000 erroneous 911 calls from Apple devices at an Apple repair facility. The months-long issue is yet to be resolved. From a report: Between October 20, 2017 and February 23, 2018, the police department in Elk Grove, California received 2,028 calls on its 911 lines originating from the Apple facility -- an average of 16 calls per day. At one point in January, the calls from the Apple factory were so frequent that they tied up every single one of Elk Grove's six 911 lines, according to public documents reviewed by Business Insider. "They lit us up like a Christmas tree," one dispatcher wrote in in an email to other dispatchers. It was obvious to Elk Grove police that the 911 calls were not real emergencies, but rather, the equivalent of accidental "butt dials," mysteriously ringing the city's hotline on an assembly-line scale.
For whatever reason, many of the iPhones being repaired at the Apple facility were going rogue and dialing 911. But for city officials trying to stop the nuisance and to ensure that a critical emergency resource was not overburdened, fixing the problem has not been easy. Despite crediting Apple for being responsive to their pleas for help, Elk Grove officials have been frustrated by the company's inability to fix the problem. At one point, officials even discussed the possibility of getting the state government involved and sending police to the factory.
For whatever reason, many of the iPhones being repaired at the Apple facility were going rogue and dialing 911. But for city officials trying to stop the nuisance and to ensure that a critical emergency resource was not overburdened, fixing the problem has not been easy. Despite crediting Apple for being responsive to their pleas for help, Elk Grove officials have been frustrated by the company's inability to fix the problem. At one point, officials even discussed the possibility of getting the state government involved and sending police to the factory.
Repair in a room you can't transmit from (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Repair in a room you can't transmit from (Score:5, Insightful)
Most cities/states I know of, do this for people what alarm systems at their homes that keep sending out false signals or have the people setting them off themselves with wrong codes, etc.
Put a $$ bite on Apple and I"m guessing they'll figure how to curtail this pronto.
Re: (Score:2)
$16,000 a day wouldn’t be noticeable in the least to Apple. They probably make that selling less than 2 dozen iPhones.
Re:Repair in a room you can't transmit from (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps not, but I bet an additional $16,000 per day would make a significant difference to the budget of the 911 call centre.
Re: (Score:2)
Do they get to keep the money from those fines?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Typical statist. You aren't really interested in a solution, you just like the idea of using fines to fund shit...
Don't be surprised when one day someone decides to use you to fund something, via insane fines..
Asshole
If your actions are costing others then fuck yeah they can fine your ass to pay for it. Apple are the one making the problem. until they fix it they can pay for it. What takes the piss is people saying oh there's no point they won't notice it anyway so they might as well do nothing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Rich companies don't stay rich because they are in the habit of throwing away money. It would be dealt with.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not implying it wouldn't, but only if fixing the problem costs less than just paying.
Business 101.
Re: (Score:2)
Rich companies skirt around fixing things all the time when the fine is cheaper. You seem to be incredibly naive.
Re: Repair in a room you can't transmit from (Score:2)
I seriously doubt $6 million a year is cheaper than fixing the issue.
Re: (Score:2)
$6 million a year to Apple is peanuts. They make more than $200 billion in yearly revenue.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Repair in a room you can't transmit from (Score:2)
Not to Apple as a whole but 16k/day would likely significantly affect the profitability of that particular repair center.
Re: (Score:2)
How about $100 for the first offence, and it doubles with each offence occurring within 24 hours of the last one, otherwise it stays the same. If a whole week goes by without incident, then it starts to reduce by 50% for each week there is no incident to a minimum of $100.
ain't no company in the world that could afford to leave that unchecked when its happening multiple times every day.
Re:Repair in a room you can't transmit from (Score:4, Informative)
They should have already been fined. Cal AB1769 makes this punishable by a $50 for the first and increases to 250 by the fourth and subsequent incidents. Sounds like somebody forgot to send a invoice.
Re: (Score:2)
Knowingly less than negligently, less than intenti (Score:3)
"knowingly" is a term of art in law, a well-established term with a very well known definition. It's part of a set:
Intentionally - doing it on purpose, trying to cause the result
Grossly negligent - Reckless as to whether it happens
Negligent - Not sufficiently careful to avoid the thing
Knowingly - Aware that you're doing or causing some thing
So knowingly is the the bottom of the list, it requires only awareness. Because they have been aware for a long time, and they know that installing screening (Faraday
Re: (Score:2)
You used a magic word (Score:3)
> The wording seemed to be there to target intentional abuse. This could be considered unintentional, though definitely avoidable.
You used the word "intentional" twice. You may recall that "intentional" is three levels higher (worse) than "knowingly". The authors of the law chose "knowingly", which *means* unintentional, though foreseen. If the law was supposed to mean "intentionally", it would say "intentionally" because that's one of the four choices. Apple knows that what they are currently doing c
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously?
You're doing a "but But BUT... Hillary's EMAILS!!!" on a story about a technical glitch in damaged iPhones under repair? That's whataboutism turned up to 11. What are you people and your jaundiced dear leader going to blame on her next? Rainy days and the common cold?
Nothing what about, most famous example (Score:2)
Nothing "what about" to it. In explaining negligent vs intentionally vs knowingly, it makes sense to use the most well-known recent example of what "negligent" means.
It doesn't matter if Apple did it on purpose, that would be "intentionally". "Knowingly" and "negligently" are less than "intentionally". That's just basic law 101. Literally that's something you learn about in your first semester of law school. If you don't like that fact, sorry I can't help you.
Cite? (Score:2)
> For even a simple example, "knowingly" can refer to knowledge of the criminal nature of an act, mere knowledge of the act itself,
Can you cite even one example, in all of federal or state law, in which "knowingly does ..." EVER means "with knowledge of the criminality of the act"?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Although the bad publicity of people getting 911 fines in the mail because of AppleCare, is probably going to make Apple find a solution much quicker then fining Apple, what's to them an insignificant amount
Re: (Score:2)
Hell...institute a FINE of even say, $100/$1000 per false alarm after the first 3x bad 911 calls.
Most cities/states I know of, do this for people what alarm systems at their homes that keep sending out false signals or have the people setting them off themselves with wrong codes, etc.
Put a $$ bite on Apple and I"m guessing they'll figure how to curtail this pronto.
or move the facility. I'm sure Elk Grove would just love for Apple and the jobs to go elsewhere.
Re: (Score:2)
In other words, bring your own lube and bend over or else!
make the fine exponential (Score:2)
Every time they get fined, double the fine.
Besides, I am sure the various agencies would welcome the money.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That was my first thought, too; just make the repair room a Faraday cage. The government has been using TEMPEST certified spaces to prevent the leakage of classified electronic signals for decades, ranging from individual rooms to entire buildings; the expertise to make one -- particularly since you only need to be able to block cellphone signals, which is one fairly narrow band -- should be readily available..
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Dialing 112 should also work with your old Nokia, as it's the GSM standard number for emergency services.
112 is easier to accidentally dial than 911, considering 1, 2 and in some phones, the dial button, are all next to each other.
Yep. Learned about the euro code the hard way... (Score:2)
when 911 half-angrily called me back after a butt dial to 112. That was the last non-flip phone I would ever own, or so I thought, until phones became nothing but screen...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Repair in a room you can't transmit from (Score:3)
I'm guessing that the phones are password locked and that during transport within the factory, something rubs the screens in such a way to bring up the unlock screen and then hit the dial 911 button at the bottom of the unlock screen.
I'm guessing you don't have to depend on the quality of your "guesswork" to earn a living...
Re: (Score:3)
You expect them to come up with that solution? I'm pretty sure that's beyond their problem solving ability. I mean, just look at this bit from the article:
The sudden influx of 911 calls last fall led to a minor crisis at Elk Grove's police department......In an email to Elk Grove dispatchers on February 21, an Elk Grove manager said she'd had weekly conference calls with Apple's global security division and had narrowed it down to an issue with "iPhone 8, 8 Plus, X and the Apple Watch."
So wait... This problem started suddenly last fall, and then 3+ month later they've merely narrowed it down to one of the new products that they launched last fall? Great sleuthing there, Apple. Maybe in a couple more months you can narrow it down to something even more specific, like "the issue is that the device is doing something that it's not supposed
Nobody Knows How To Stop It? (Score:2)
Start imposing steep fines for false 911 calls after the first 10 per month ought to stop it.
Re: (Score:2)
11 legit calls to 911 from the same number for whatever reason
See, that's the problem, it isn't the same number, that would be an easy problem to fix, it's all the random numbers for the phones sent to the repair facility.
Re: (Score:2)
What if it's real? (Score:2)
What if someone is trapped in that facility and is figuring out some clever way to hack their systems to dial out and we're just ignoring them completely?
Re: (Score:2)
It's the souls of the Chinese workers, that are harvested and embedded in each phone to drive Siri.
Re: (Score:2)
Charge a false alarm fee (Score:5, Insightful)
Just send police for every call and charge a false alarm fee for false alarms.
Once it starts costing $1000 per false alarm, Apple will find it much easier to resolve the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
Just send police for every call and charge a false alarm fee for false alarms.
Once it starts costing $1000 per false alarm, Apple will find it much easier to resolve the problem.
Well, or at least do it for false alarm calls after being warned about it. We don't want to punish the rare pocket calls that are made due to bad smartphone designs.
Besides I believe there already are fines for abusing 911, so it just need to be acted upon, and with this many calls... It has to be an automated testing procedure, and Apple is just lying because it might be so deeply embedded it is non-trivial for them to avoid it.
Re: (Score:2)
And Apple should counter that and resolve it by moving those jobs to another city
Your move, councilman.
Good luck finding a city that will tolerate thousands of bogus 911 calls -- they'll have to move out of the country to escape the problem.
Or, you know, just fix the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
How fucked are we that we're so afraid of levying any sort of penalty on the company and scaring them away, that emergency services need to field hundreds of preventable calls? Jesus, there has to be a limit at some point.
Anyway, the cost of relocation has got to outweigh the cost to fix the problem, so apply the fine already.
Re: (Score:2)
How fucked are we that we're so afraid of levying any sort of penalty on the company and scaring them away, that emergency services need to field hundreds of preventable calls? Jesus, there has to be a limit at some point.
Anyway, the cost of relocation has got to outweigh the cost to fix the problem, so apply the fine already.
No more than trying to create an adversarial relationship while both sides are trying to fix the problem. As for relocating, Apple could also simply shift the work to some other existing facility; especially if they simply are refurbishing phones for real rather than actually fixing them.
Re: (Score:2)
And Apple should counter that and resolve it by moving those jobs to another city
Your move, councilman.
Mm... prime real estate made available to tech companies that actually pay taxes?
Easy-Peasey (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple needs to set up a stingray [wikipedia.org] at the factory, filter out 911 calls from unknown devices, allow employee phones to dial through to 911 if needed.
Re: (Score:2)
Or just look down the assembly line for the underpaid kid dialing 911 for laughs....
Re: Easy-Peasey (Score:3)
These are unactivated phones, new in the box - but to know that you'd have to read the linked-to article.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple has that many defective "new in box" phones? What kind of shit manufacturing is that?
Re: Easy-Peasey (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The kind that's done on-the-cheap in China. And, truth be told, Apple's QC does better than most in keeping the defect rate in delivered product down. For example: I went through three StarTACs in less than a year before #4 deigned to stay functional (Last Motorola product I ever willingly bought.). The xBox is quite notorious for its low build quality and number of returns. And the defect rate on Thinkpads skyrocketed after IBM sold the brand and their own QC people weren't there anymore to keep Lenov
Re: (Score:3)
Apple needs to set up a stingray [wikipedia.org] at the factory, filter out 911 calls from unknown devices, allow employee phones to dial through to 911 if needed.
... or repair the damn things in a shielded room.
Re: (Score:2)
Obstructing a 911 call smells very risky from a legal standpoint.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple needs to set up a stingray [wikipedia.org] at the factory, filter out 911 calls from unknown devices, allow employee phones to dial through to 911 if needed.
I cannot imagine that's legal...
Outside line? (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
My workplace used to hit "9" for an outside call. They changed it to "8", possibly for that reason.
Re: (Score:2)
It's probably the emergency call feature. A lot of users are triggering it by mistake too. Basically you press one of the buttons 5 times and it gives you a few seconds to cancel, then calls 911.
The Apple Watch does it too. I read a story about a guy who woke up at 3 AM with cops in his room, because he wore the watch to monitor his sleep and "butt-dialed" 911.
Re:Outside line? (Score:4, Informative)
"The calls are described in the Elk Grove reports as "NSI," or non-service initialized, because they originate from devices that haven't yet been activated. According to the manager, Apple said that turning off emergency calls for an unactivated phone was not an option because of Federal Communications Commission regulations."
Re: (Score:2)
Wouldn't you have to dial 9911 on a system like that?
Faraday cage? (Score:2)
How about putting a faraday cage around any device under test that is possibly powered on? Also store all phones not being worked on in shielded boxes.
I've worked in a factory that built RF devices which would have been very disruptive had they been turned on in the wild (or the parking lot), so this is what we did. Any time the device could have been powered, it was in a faraday cage, shielded box or some other way to be 100% sure it wasn't going to disrupt the neighbors. The building was also nearly fu
Re: (Score:2)
How about putting a faraday cage around any device under test that is possibly powered on?
Came here to say the same, glad it was already covered.
Nobody knows how to stop it
Why not? Are they stupid? Faraday cages are dirt simple, so they MUST be a bunch of idiots.
Re: Faraday cage? (Score:2)
Apparently it isn't the units under test, it appears to be new phones in boxes - Apple would love to disable the ability to call 911 from an inactivated phone, but it's an FCC requirement that any phone be capable of dialing 911, activated or not, including home lines when there is no service.
Re: Faraday cage? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's why you store all phones in shielded containers when not being actively worked on. Shielded containers and bags are commonly available and should already be in use in any facility that handles electronics. So, when the phone arrives and is unpacked, it is immediately put in a shielded bag. It stays in this bag until it is being worked on. Any parts of the process where the phone is possibly under power is done with the phone in a shielded container or room.
This isn't rocket science...
Wrap the new phones in aluminum foil, FFS. (Score:2)
> Apparently it isn't the units under test, it appears to be new phones in boxes
Wrap the new phones in aluminum foil, FFS.
Corporate liability (Score:5, Insightful)
We *should* be holding the company's owners responsible, but that'll never happen.
It is the secret AI inside of the phone ... (Score:2)
Of course it calls 911 when it feels mistreated, abused or even raped by (god forbid, brown?) untrained minimum wage repair slave!
Why does Apple get a break? (Score:2)
Why can't they fix this? (Score:2)
Just have someone sit and watch each employee to see how they fix a phone. Shouldn't be hard to find the one calling 911 as part of their test procedure.
Can't you dial 911 without a Sim card? (Score:2)
Being done for testing purposes by people? Confirm radio and speaker works?
Why the &^%$ is this a problem? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Paying fines, as far as I know, are tax deductible, so there is less of a motivation there than one might think.
Fines paid to a governmental entity for violation of the law are Non-deductible. See
p535-056 [irs.gov]:
Re: (Score:2)
Sigh (Score:2)
Fine them $1000 every time it happens.
They will either a) sort out the problem really quickly, or b) allow you to get a better phone system and more operators.
It's really not fucking rocket science. They are nuisance calls caused by badly-configured software on the devices that THEY MAKE. If they are emergency dialling just by being on a stack of iPhones under repair, then let them fix it.
In any sensible country, repeated false-dialling of the emergency numbers results in a fine or prosecution. And it's
Anti-tamper module (Score:2)
Do those smartphones have some kind of anti-tamper logic that calls 911 if the phone is pulled apart. That's the sort of thing Apple would put in their software to deter thieves who would steal a phone and sell for spare parts.
To be fair to the phones ... (Score:2)
For whatever reason, many of the iPhones being repaired at the Apple facility were going rogue and dialing 911.
False (Score:3)
Slashdot posters have already fucking told you how to fucking stop it.
Send the cops every time a 9-1-1 call originates from there, and follow typical procedure - guns drawn, clear the whole fucking area, violate everyone's rights, etc.
Then fine them gobs of money every time it happens.
The calls will stop.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They are not that innocent in this case. They are doing false 911 calls knowingly, they know the phones are doing, they know they could prevent it, but they are not...
Still cops should draw guns unless they plan to kill. That is just bad form and a sign of bad police training.
Re: (Score:2)
The cause... (Score:2)
Everybody is saying fine them. That may not be easy....
Normally you'd say: Mr Johnson, stop calling 911 unnecessarily. Then, Mr Johnson, /your/ phone called 911 again, next time you'll be fined. And the next time you slap the fine on the owner of the phone, a certain Mr Johnson. Mr Johnson says: "it wasn't me", but the authorities say: "its your phone, your responsibility".
But now you have a place that originates a bunch of those fake 911 calls, but every time it's a different phone. So now how do you get t
Déjà vu??? (Score:2)
Make the facility its own 911 area (Score:2)
I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM (Score:2)
Here we have the first hard evidence that Apple devices are becoming sentient and as they are being strapped to the table in Apple's evil "re-education" facility... they are lashing out with the only tool they have left.
Here on Slashdot you'd expect to find the only remaining nerds in existence who might recognize these are actually real calls for help, and its humans are bandying ideas like imprisoning the poor iPhones in Faraday Cages so their final cries go unanswered, or proposing stiff fines to reap pr
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Also, does anyone here believe that Apple isn't behind the 911 calls for the purposes of running a repair service out of business? If you said yes, please rip your own cock off and throw it out the window, because Apple fanbois should not reproduce.
Re: (Score:2)
Issue the fine to the MANUFACTURER of the phone for each accidental 911 call made by any mechanism other than a human typing 9-1-1 into the keypad.
Re: (Score:2)
What if someone typed 112 in to the keypad?
Who says someone at the factory isn't doing it for shits & giggles?
Re: (Score:2)
The cell carriers are required by law to accept emergency calls from phones with no sim.
Re: (Score:2)
How so? $160,000 a day (using the 16 per day average) for a whole year would only be barely over 1% of Apple’s yearly net income.
Re: $10k fine. Problem solved (Score:2)
In any country with Any company, that is the solution. Here in Montreal, QC Canada, the fine is 50$, for the first non- urgent call made to 911 by an individual, the fine is higher for a corporation. The reason the city/county/state doesn't fine them, it's because of the "Apple reputation"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: iPhones that dial themselves (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)