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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]
Paul YM says:
From reading the patent it seems like they are detecting that a previously un-jailbroken phone is being jailbroken as a sign that the phone is out of the hands of the owner, not that jailbreaking itself means the user is unauthorized. I hate this kind of alarmist paranoid garbage. Stick to reviewing GTD apps.
August 28, 2010 — 12:09 am
Bobby Travis says:
Paul, I’m going to have to disagree with you here. The remote wipe possibilities are only a minor side effect, and not really my concern. I personally find the methodology behind the grand scheme of what Apple is trying to do more than a little invasive.
I’ll grant you, that since I have had a kid, my level of general paranoia has climbed to heights I never would have believed… :P — but even if it is an opt-in only security measure, I wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing that my phone had that kind of capability at all.
As for “alarmist”, no one is crying that the sky is falling, here man — but it is significant news when a body such as the EFF weighs in so heavily on a subject that is, arguably, their area of expertise. And this is a reasonable forum to discuss it in.
August 28, 2010 — 1:22 am
Josh says:
Hey Paul,
I was going to write a piece on Android versus iOS, are you interested in writing a point-counterpoint with me to be posted here? If so, please shoot me an email josh[at]40tech.com and we can coordinate.
August 30, 2010 — 11:53 am
Helen Keller says:
Paul, you are a clueless idiot. But then every Paul I’ve ever known was in the same category. I guess it goes all the way to the uptight biblical guy.
March 30, 2011 — 2:31 pm
Bobby Travis says:
Now, now — no need for name calling and such. Feel free to express your opinion, but try to take the high road with it please. :)
March 30, 2011 — 3:28 pm
Paul YM says:
Fair enough. Apple applies for a lot of patents, many of which never see the light of day in their hardware or software. I’m sorry, but I hate it being suggested to me that I need to assume that everyone and everything is out there to attack me and my family. I’ll also admit that I’m a fanboy, but that’s not what makes me highly doubt that Apple is going to use their almighty power to spy on me, take biometric measurements, and surreptitiously photograph my kids. Apple has, in my opinion and experience, shown a dedication to integrity that I find trustworthy. I’m probably naïve, but it helps me sleep at night.
You can use 40tech as a forum for whatever you like, it’s your place and I’m just a guest, but I think this post reeks of hyperbole. I appreciate your measured response to my hotheaded post, but this kind of stuff pushes my buttons a bit.
August 28, 2010 — 2:30 am
Bobby Travis says:
I have a somewhat more cynical view of Apple and the ethics of Big Steve — I have respect for their innovation and slick marketing prowess, and I understand how they developed into a “lifestyle brand”, but I can’t say that I trust them, or that I am anything even close to a fanboy.
Also bear in mind that I am not out and out screaming BURN YOUR PHONES!!! APPLE IS COMING TO GET YOU AND PLANS TO EAT YOUR CHILDREN!!! :P The post is actually a report on information gathered from two other sources (linked at the bottom of the post), and interjected with what I repeatedly state is my opinion. Opinion of both the possibilities suggested by those sources, and my likely direction should things come to pass in the way those sources describe.
Most importantly, the post asks you, the reader, to express -your- opinion on the content of the post — which you most definitely did! :D And I appreciate your opinion. I was looking for discussion, and you are providing it. Keep it coming! Our readers are, and have always been, much more than guests, to us.
August 28, 2010 — 4:27 am
David says:
Well it may be “alarmist paranoid garbage” to one person but I will bet my house that this will rightly annoy a huge slice of their users. I completely agree that this has no place on any personal device and its nice of Apple for wrapping it for us and telling us it improves “our” security.
Call em cynical but I think its more to do with Apple loosing money on phones being JailBroken. Maybe Im wrong.
August 29, 2010 — 9:00 am
Bobby Travis says:
I hear you, David — and it is nice to know I am not alone in my paranoia. ;)
It seems a bit of an extreme way to combat money lost due to app piracy and the purchase/use of unapproved apps, but I’m sure it was at least a factor in their thought processes, if not their entire reasoning. Never know with that Jobs guy though — he has a special way of thinking, that one.
August 29, 2010 — 2:24 pm
Josh says:
You guys have a higher threshold than I do. I swore off Apple products when they started picking and choosing apps for unknown reasons. Come to the Android side young Paduan, we have Google Voice, Grooveshark and many other cool apps (still far less but it’s growing).
August 29, 2010 — 2:53 pm
Bobby Travis says:
Heh — The only reason I went with iPhone in the first place was because there were no decent Android phones with my carrier. I have to say, Apple definitely knows how to put out a slick product, though! I find their elitist, proprietary attitudes annoying, however (though, as I mentioned, I understand why they adopted them — create a lifestyle brand, etc.). Those attitudes, the seemingly random app pulls and decisions, and this latest potential invasion of my privacy are more than enough to make me consider shopping again, though.
August 29, 2010 — 3:07 pm
Evan Kline says:
I have an iPhone, and absolutely love my brand new iPad, but I don’t give Apple the benefit of the doubt any longer (haven’t for quite some time, actually).
This patent app rubs be the wrong way, but I’m willing to wait to see if it ever makes it into a product. I’m willing to consider that Apple’s motives could be benign, but I also consider that Apple is just a publicly-traded company, and has a fiduciary duty to its shareholder to make money. Google is no saint in my eyes, either, Josh, but for my next phone I’ll probably cast my vote for that at work. I’ll pick open over polished.
August 29, 2010 — 3:47 pm
Bobby Travis says:
Well put, Evan, on all counts.
I believe I posted some time back about the potential evil that is Google as well. Hmmm… perhaps I do come across as a bit cynical at times, eh? :P With good reason, though, I think.
And you finally caved and bought an iPad, did you…? :D
August 29, 2010 — 3:59 pm
Evan Kline says:
I did cave in. Well, sort of. My wife and I had agreed a while back we were going to splurge on one joint present for our anniversary, and much to my surprise, she suggested we get an iPad. So, right now we jockey for time on it.
August 29, 2010 — 4:12 pm
Bobby Travis says:
lol! Awesome. Unless the patent extends to iPads and all that… :D
August 29, 2010 — 7:04 pm
Anthony Russo says:
And this is from the same company that made one of the greatest commercials dedicated to freedom in technology ever!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8
Today that is Steve Jobs on the screen, All the Apple fan-boys in the audience, and the hammer swinger is wearing an Android shirt!
Anthony Russo
http://www.anthonyrussoblog.com/Anthony
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso
August 29, 2010 — 10:31 pm
Bobby Travis says:
Anthony… That was awesome! And incredibly interesting for so many different reasons! Thanks for sharing that. :D
August 30, 2010 — 1:23 pm