A reminder for all customers who are keen on staying on the safe side

Dec 23, 2013 17:21 GMT  ·  By

Jailbreaking iOS isn’t exactly illegal (though there are some circumstances where it supposedly is) but, if you ask Apple, there are enough reasons not to do it that it doesn’t even matter if it’s punishable by law.

To make one matter clear, no one has been thrown in the slammer for jailbreaking their iPhone, but in this day and age people will sue you even for walking funny.

So, while it isn’t exactly clear how legal it is to jailbreak, it is frowned upon, since the practice has been linked to piracy on numerous occasions.

To ensure that customers know the risks, Apple has long maintained a KB article (HT3743) on its Support site detailing the issues that may arise from “unauthorized modification of iOS.”

“iOS is designed to be reliable and secure from the moment you turn on your device. Built-in security features protect against malware and viruses and help to secure access to personal information and corporate data,” the company explains.

“Unauthorized modifications to iOS (‘jailbreaking’) bypass security features and can cause numerous issues to the hacked iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch,” says Apple.

Now that the evad3rs have released evasi0n7 for people eager to jailbreak their iOS 7 devices, perhaps it is worth reminding everyone the key reasons why Apple doesn’t want you to jailbreak your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Apple provides a long lecture for people having second thoughts about hacking their shiny iPhone or iPad, outlining six major potential outcomes that may hinder the functionality of the iOS device:

1. security vulnerabilities; 2. instability; 3. shortened battery life; 4. unreliable voice and data; 5. disruption of services; 6. inability to apply future software updates.

Regarding that last bullet point, Apple says that, “Some unauthorized modifications have caused damage to iOS that is not repairable.”

“This can result in the hacked iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iOS update is installed,” the company warns.

The company thus “strongly cautions against installing any software that hacks iOS,” adding that “unauthorized modification of iOS is a violation of the iOS end-user software license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software.”