If it follows the redirect I would redirect it to random binary files hosted by Amazon, then see if it continues to not require any further action

This appears to be backfiring spectacularly. It is a shame in many ways because a decent digital ID system would be very beneficial. The problem is the approach is completely wrong. There are already 10+ competing ID system which are now largely digital. A solution on how to bring all that together done well could make things significantly more secure by reducing the attack surface and make it much more reliable.

Instead it looks like they are going for 1 more competing system, the implementation of which will be steered by politics and ideology rather than technology and technical requirements.

That seems an extreme measure to ensure the security/integrity of a screen hinge sensor input ( or protect this tiny revenue stream )

It does actually perform a security function. The lid angle sensor is used to know when the device is open or closed, and when closed, it physically disconnects the microphone. If you were to be able to recalibrate it at any time, you would leave your device vulnerable to having the microphone enabled when the lid is closed. You can argue whether that justifies the practice, but it's not as simple as just burning the EEPROM serial number in that tells it to turn the display on or off. It defends the user against an attack vector.

From that perspective making it one-time programmable is not unreasonable.

It feels like Apple's implementation leans more toward vendor lock-in than purely user protection

I agree with you

Though it could be simpler if it was something like a magnet on the lid that activates a magnetic switch on the bottom part (and it would be harder to have a false negative result). But Apple is going to Apple

Yes, it could be done with a Hall effect sensor or something like they used to. The cool thing about this approach is they actually use a different angle to turn the screen off as you close the lid than they do for turning it on when you open the lid, to create a better experience. Since it is a security feature, then the "open" vs "closed" state should use the same source of truth. So it's a trade-off of complexity and experience.

It should also be relevant for triggering the "closed let's lock the device" event, right?

The x files def con was always a defense conference

That makes me feel better about my fish, I thought it was among the worst, but good to know it atleast qualified.

Is this anything to do with them taking passwords without consent? I rarely use windows, and when I do one of the first things I do is switch from edge to chrome. I think I set up edge and used it once to see what it was actually like, but I was pretty careful about the data syncing / sharing settings. I have the Microsoft authenticator app on my phone, I was pretty careful about the privacy settings on that too, but it's been through a couple of phone upgrades. Somehow all of my passwords were making their way into Microsoft authenticator, so I must have missed something somewhere. I can only imagine how many millions of people must have had their passwords unintentionally slurped by Microsoft if they have been that aggressive with it.

They have been doing that for years for all sorts of things usually seasonal but sometimes other stuff

They get locked into a caged ecosystem

Does anyone know how long was this going on, are we talking weeks, months or years?

Invoice them.

The worst they can do is not pay it.