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It depends. For me, I consider any phone which holds very important access to data critical to my life (my email, texts, signed in apps which can spend my mone

by bradfa 3y ago

It depends. For me, I consider any phone which holds very important access to data critical to my life (my email, texts, signed in apps which can spend my money, etc) to be unsafe to use once there's an update available for supported iPhones where the CVE it fixes is severe enough to allow remote access through normal use of the phone. I just bought a new iPhone SE 3rd gen partly because of the above as I see it coming soon, but also because the battery in my iPhone 8 was getting very sad. Paying for a battery replacement for a potentially-no-longer-officially-supported phone was not going to be a wise investment for me. My school-aged daughter still has her iPhone 8 and it's as up to date as can be with latest iOS 16 update. But she isn't signed into any email app and doesn't have any banking ability on her phone. Sure, if it gets compromised it could be a vector into my home network or be used to spy on her or impersonate her, all of those would be bad, but it's less bad than if my phone was compromised. These risks are low enough currently that we're not pressed to get her a new phone, yet, but probably will later this year if Apple doesn't issue any further updates to iOS 16.

ghaff 3y ago
That seems a pretty good summary. I wouldn't use a phone as my daily driver with banking apps etc. if it were out of support, but as a spare phone or something to be used primarily for specific purposes like a GPS? Sure. Per another comment, a badly swollen battery is a physical safety issue and that point, the battery should either be replaced or the phone recycled. In general, I also agree with the article that buying older refurb models isn't clearly good economy. There are advantages to have a not too old backup phone around. Indeed, I'm using my old iPhone X at the moment after my newer phone broke.
- bradfa 3y ago
  The refurb market seems like a crap shoot still. I tried to buy an "excellent" rated refurb iPhone SE from backmarket.com 2 weeks ago but returned it for a refund because the physical quality of the phone was VERY clearly NOT excellent (maybe I would rate it "fair" at best). I've personally had good luck buying refurb phones direct from Apple. The discount isn't as good as 3rd parties, but they've all arrived with 0 defects and new batteries. I even got to exercise the warranty on a directly purchased from Apple refurb phone once, it was easy at an Apple store (about 30 minute drive from my house).
  - ghaff 3y ago
    Manufacturers in general seem to be a safer source for refurb gear even if you're not going to get a "killer deal." However, I still personally tend to question the economy of buying something that has two or three years shorter support life out of the gate--unless you routinely trade-in anyway and then you have to run the numbers on the trade-in value.
    - dudefeliciano 3y ago
      > the economy of buying something that has two or three years shorter support life Unfortunately there are no other options in that form factor. The closest would be the iphone 13 mini, which has an even earlier release date than iphone SE 3rd gen.
specialist 3y ago
> I consider any [old] phone which holds very important access to data critical to my life ... to be unsafe True. And a good reminder (nudge) to change my old devices to a separate iCloud account. Thanks.
TestingTest5 3y ago
Maybe you've already done this, put her device on a guest network to isolate it from others in your home.
superq 3y ago
Are you also comfortable with camera and mic being enabled and streaming to remote servers? Old iPhones don't even have the theoretical protection of a "hardware" LED to show when those are enabled.
- ikekkdcjkfke 3y ago
  ios 16 is unable to know when it used mic on older devices?
blub 3y ago
A lot of remote vulnerabilities are in iMessage which she’d use heavily I imagine. Other messengers aren’t necessarily safer. You should get her a new phone. The risk for her isn’t banking, it’s getting spied on by some creep. IMO that could be a lot worse than getting your online banking hacked…

by bradfa 3y ago

ghaff 3y ago

That seems a pretty good summary. I wouldn't use a phone as my daily driver with banking apps etc. if it were out of support, but as a spare phone or something to be used primarily for specific purposes like a GPS? Sure. Per another comment, a badly swollen battery is a physical safety issue and that point, the battery should either be replaced or the phone recycled. In general, I also agree with the article that buying older refurb models isn't clearly good economy. There are advantages to have a not too old backup phone around. Indeed, I'm using my old iPhone X at the moment after my newer phone broke.

bradfa 3y ago
The refurb market seems like a crap shoot still. I tried to buy an "excellent" rated refurb iPhone SE from backmarket.com 2 weeks ago but returned it for a refund because the physical quality of the phone was VERY clearly NOT excellent (maybe I would rate it "fair" at best). I've personally had good luck buying refurb phones direct from Apple. The discount isn't as good as 3rd parties, but they've all arrived with 0 defects and new batteries. I even got to exercise the warranty on a directly purchased from Apple refurb phone once, it was easy at an Apple store (about 30 minute drive from my house).
- ghaff 3y ago
  Manufacturers in general seem to be a safer source for refurb gear even if you're not going to get a "killer deal." However, I still personally tend to question the economy of buying something that has two or three years shorter support life out of the gate--unless you routinely trade-in anyway and then you have to run the numbers on the trade-in value.
  - dudefeliciano 3y ago
    > the economy of buying something that has two or three years shorter support life Unfortunately there are no other options in that form factor. The closest would be the iphone 13 mini, which has an even earlier release date than iphone SE 3rd gen.

specialist 3y ago

> I consider any [old] phone which holds very important access to data critical to my life ... to be unsafe True. And a good reminder (nudge) to change my old devices to a separate iCloud account. Thanks.

TestingTest5 3y ago

Maybe you've already done this, put her device on a guest network to isolate it from others in your home.

superq 3y ago

Are you also comfortable with camera and mic being enabled and streaming to remote servers? Old iPhones don't even have the theoretical protection of a "hardware" LED to show when those are enabled.

ikekkdcjkfke 3y ago
ios 16 is unable to know when it used mic on older devices?

blub 3y ago

A lot of remote vulnerabilities are in iMessage which she’d use heavily I imagine. Other messengers aren’t necessarily safer. You should get her a new phone. The risk for her isn’t banking, it’s getting spied on by some creep. IMO that could be a lot worse than getting your online banking hacked…