This sounds more like he was made redundant than fired. If his role at the company is no longer required that is redundancy and there should be a severance package in his favour. Assuming laws are similar to the UK.
Personally, I never hold my phone in the position described in this post. For a start you can't even press the home button from this position. I hold my phone (in my right hand) with the bottom right corner much closer to the bottom of my ring finger.
Comparing your bank account against an Apple template seems like a big waste of time. What is the point of this? Just a hook to get people to signup to your service and fill them with wild ideas of being the next Apple based solely on finances?
Yes this practice should not be acceptable, if a company does it I actively avoid them and recommend friends do the same. I think the market for this sort of thing will ever be shrinking as more and more of the technology generation grow into adults. It's a shame that normal people out in the world are completely unaware this is even happening on their systems. I often speak to people who've falled foul of this practice and they don't even know where it come from and don't seem worried that something appeared without them approving it. Most of the time they just assume that's how it's always been and they'd not noticed it before.
He would have had better luck finding a partner by getting away from the computer, sleeping in a real bed, improving his lifestyle and learning to be a better conversationalist. Sounds like he was a recluse "Sleeping at his computer cubicle" and spending no time actually going out and enjoying life.