A possible cause is the Siri-enabled button on the remote that can trigger music requests.
Around 8:15am, I checked my email and noticed I had been auto-subscribed to a free trial of Apple Music.
Weird. I'm a Spotify user, and wouldn't have started a trial. So, I asked my wife, and she said she hadn't done anything with Apple Music.
Hmm, maybe my account was hacked. That would be quite a predicament since I use 1password with crazy long passwords for all services. So, I contacted Apple Support over SMS to ask how and why the Apple Music subscription got initiated.
They told me that Apple auto-subscribed me because I was given a free month... and it was done at 5:14am (when everyone in my house was asleep).
The whole conversation felt like a phishing scam. Decided to move to phone support, and they are telling me my Apple TV in my living room subscribed me.
Is it possible for someone to remote into my Apple TV and auto-subscribe me? I wouldn't have guessed an Apple TV to be hackable.
I asked what time zone it was and they told me they didn’t know. It doesn’t show up for them.
I’m in New York. So I’m guessing it’s UTC and it was actually 814am not 514am.
I asked if there’s was a way the family account could’ve triggered it to look like it’s from the Apple TV but they said no. It was purchased on tv.
Also, that support person was totally useless. I'd just close the chat and try to get someone else, or walk into a store.
Like using TouchID or FaceID.
I didn’t realize Apple could just be like “hey, here’s a free month of Apple Music … also we’re gonna charge you next month!”
Seems super scammy. Similar to the U2 debacle that happened years ago.
Maybe an ai that was trained to be a cherry gen z persona?
Bold assumption given the state of autocorrect on Apple OSs.
Speaking to support they don’t know what time zone the 514am timestamp is in. I think it’s likely to be UTC, which means it happened at 814am.
I have a two year old. I’m gonna chalk it up to him. If it was 814am it’s way more likely.
Still super weird cause the tv wasn’t on. But given the time of day, seems much more likely.
(I know that our TV is often off while our Apple TV is on; I have no knowledge of how those promotional popups work, as I haven't accepted one.)
08:14 EST would align with 05:14 PST though