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As some of you have no doubt heard, Apple has recently applied for a
patent entitled: Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users
of an Electronic Device. This technology is, ostensibly, supposed to
give Apple the power to help you protect yourself in the event someone
else has gotten a hold of your iPhone. It also gives Apple the power to
remotely wipe your iPhone if you have Jailbroken your device — the
legality of Jailbreaking notwithstanding. Just that last detail is
enough to get many people up in arms, but it is the method in which
Apple wants to implement its new Big Brother feature that has people
truly freaked out. After taking a bit of time to think about it and
consider the implications, I have decided that I am one of those people.
The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), an organization dedicated to
protecting fundamental rights and freedoms — such as privacy — in the
digital world, couldn’t even find a strong enough term to describe what
Apple is doing. Spyware, just didn’t do the new approach to “security”
justice — so they created a new term: Traitorware. What else would you
call a built in program or series of programs that allow your personal
mobile device to: silently snap a picture of your surroundings — or you,
or your kids… record your voice, even outside of a phone call watch for
a sudden increase of memory in your device to determine if it has been
“hacked” – or jailbroken potentially remotely wipe your device without
your consent possibly log your keystrokes and GPS co-ordinates take a
biometric measurement of your “heart signature” and “vibration profile”
I don’t think I care what the technology is “supposed” to be used for,
and I know I don’t care that Apple may think that this technology is in
my own best interest. This sort of profiling has no place on a personal
device. I don’t think anyone has the need for this level of supposed
security. This makes Facebook privacy issues appear tame, in my opinion.
What do you think? If this patent goes through would you get an iPhone
or iPad? Would you keep the one you already have? EFF slams Apple patent
as traitorware: Jobs is spying on you? [Computerworld] Steve Jobs Is
Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware [EFF.org]