Apple 'traitorware' can take your photo and shut down your jailbroken iPhone, iPad!!!

Apple is spying on you

Bargsbeer ... Mate what ya gonna do now ???

Is this legal or what ?? I am curious as to see how they can get away with this. Its not right IMO. Im starting to look the other way @  as they are trying to dictate what we can and cant put on our devices. I havnt personally got a JB device but i would like the option without having them say NO YOU CANT ...

This is going to stir the pot. What do you all think about this and DONT hold back please

Wanted a iPhone4 sooo bad but if there going to play these games, i think HTC will be getting my $ now ....
Cheers

I think some black photo tape over the camera would work just fine.

Yeah Apple is trending on some dangerous waters here. This is moving towards big brother stuff. >_>"

CrimsonRequiem said:

I think some black photo tape over the camera would work just fine.

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Am still ROFLMFAO ;P

Conspiracy theory attack!

To me, this is all speculation based upon a patent application for a piece of software.

Don't recall the name, but there is already software out there that allows you to take a pic from the web cam on your computer remotely and it has been used for recovering stolen machines.

It sounds to me like this is something that would be offered to end users to assist in the recovery of lost and stolen devices. Something over and above the current ability of locating your device via the GPS and the ability to remotely wipe the data that is already offered via the mobileme service.

bobtomay said:

Conspiracy theory attack!

To me, this is all speculation based upon a patent application for a piece of software.

Don't recall the name, but there is already software out there that allows you to take a pic from the web cam on your computer remotely and it has been used for recovering stolen machines.

It sounds to me like this is something that would be offered to end users to assist in the recovery of lost and stolen devices. Something over and above the current ability of locating your device via the GPS and the ability to remotely wipe the data that is already offered.

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Bob, can't give you REP so +1 to you. That is exactly what I was thinking when reading the article.

Well said Bob. I think that is exactly what Apple is trying to do with that. And they cab't stop people JBing their devices. They can not support the JB'd devices. Sure. But take stops to disable JB'd devices no. As we all know in the US at least, JBing is not illegal. And since that was already proved in court any Action on that front by Apple will be a lawsuit against Apple. One major one Apple will lose in a big and bad way.

But I think Apple knows this already. And will not do something as dumb as that.

The only certain thing about Apple as you don't know their exact plans till they are released.

Apple is in the business to make money, not to spend it.

As much as I like the EFF, this one is just off the wall. There is no financial incentive for Apple to do such a thing from their end just to prevent people from jb'g. Sorry, but that makes no sense at all. Spend millions of dollars to track millions of pieces of hardware to shut down thousands of jailbroken devices? To what end?

There is no return on investment here. The use suggested in that article would only result in a money pit with zero returns, a ton of negative publicity and the potential loss of millions of sales. Even those of us with no intention of jailbreaking would not purchase a device the manufacturer could decide just to arbitrarily shut down.

bobtomay said:

Apple is in the business to make money, not to spend it.

As much as I like the EFF, this one is just off the wall. There is no financial incentive for Apple to do such a thing from their end just to prevent people from jb'g. Sorry, but that makes no sense at all. Spend millions of dollars to track millions of pieces of hardware to shut down thousands of jailbroken devices? To what end?

There is no return on investment here. The use suggested in that article would only result in a money pit with zero returns, a ton of negative publicity and the potential loss of millions of sales. Even those of us with no intention of jailbreaking would not purchase a device the manufacturer could decide just to arbitrarily shut down.

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Although it sounds very much like big brother and probably could be,I have to agree with Bob on this one. We know Apple doesn't like Jailbreakers but I don't think they would risk it, Maybe I'm wrong.

I agree that this is probably an extension of the "Find my iPhone" feature, not some sort of user policing function.

Still, in my state, it would be illegal for a private citizen to use such a feature against someone who had stolen their iPhone. GPS tracking of a device is one thing, but voice/photo/video in a potentially private place (eg. the thief's house) would require the thief's consent!

And let's all remember that just because a patent application is filed doesn't mean that this will be implemented. Corporations patent things and then either don't implement it as outlined in the application or don't use it at all (the patent being used only to protect the idea).

Using the software, Apple can remotely access your sensitive information and data, ostensibly to determine if you are an “authorised user”.

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If this was implemented as many think it may, I find it hard to believe that the privacy laws of many jurisdictions would allow it as technologist has alluded to. If someone could prove that Apple invaded their privacy, I'm not sure it would matter what they were doing with their phone and I'm sure Apple's legal team is aware of this fact (I'm not a lawyer so I could be wrong).

bobtomay said:

Conspiracy theory attack!

To me, this is all speculation based upon a patent application for a piece of software.

It sounds to me like this is something that would be offered to end users to assist in the recovery of lost and stolen devices. Something over and above the current ability of locating your device via the GPS and the ability to remotely wipe the data that is already offered via the mobileme service.

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Um, no it doesn't.

It can also record the users' voice regardless of whether they are making a phone call, monitor their internet usage and record the heartbeat and “vibration signature” of the user.

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I'm the user. I KNOW my phone has been stolen. What good is THAT info going to do for me ? I don't need a recording of the user's voice or heartbeat and vibration signature to find out that it's not ME whom is using the phone.

That is WAY over the top kind of stuff for a service which is purportedly being used to determine if your phone has been stolen and then find a way to locate it. Those things will NOT find your phone. GPS is MORE than enough to find a stolen phone. This has zilch to do with the end users security.

And if said features are able to be activated without the consent of the end user, or without intervention from the end user, how is that not violating some constitutional laws ?

Doug

Doug b said:

Um, no it doesn't.

I'm the user. I KNOW my phone has been stolen. What good is THAT info going to do for me ? I don't need a recording of the user's voice or heartbeat and vibration signature to find out that it's not ME whom is using the phone.

That is WAY over the top kind of stuff for a service which is purportedly being used to determine if your phone has been stolen and then find a way to locate it. Those things will NOT find your phone. GPS is MORE than enough to find a stolen phone. This has zilch to do with the end users security.

And if said features are able to be activated without the consent of the end user, or without intervention from the end user, how is that not violating some constitutional laws ?

Doug

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the point is so that it knows its not you and it disables most of the iphone from user doing any potential harm. like anything with your credit card or any other personal information

Doug b said:

Um, no it doesn't.

I'm the user. I KNOW my phone has been stolen. What good is THAT info going to do for me ? I don't need a recording of the user's voice or heartbeat and vibration signature to find out that it's not ME whom is using the phone.

That is WAY over the top kind of stuff for a service which is purportedly being used to determine if your phone has been stolen and then find a way to locate it. Those things will NOT find your phone. GPS is MORE than enough to find a stolen phone. This has zilch to do with the end users security.

And if said features are able to be activated without the consent of the end user, or without intervention from the end user, how is that not violating some constitutional laws ?

Doug

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I'd have to agree. GPS, cellular towers and the internet work pretty well for the purpose of recovering or deactivating a stolen phone. The technology might have some usefulness as a paid service I suppose. I would imagine that one would have to give Apple explicit permission to do these additional things. Still, as the old saying goes, "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission". Of course, with today's corporate EULA agreements anything could be lurking somewhere in the EULA fine print. If Apple or another vendor wanted to jam it in there somewhere, half the people wouldn't even see it. The other half wouldn't pause more than a few minutes before signing anyway. IMHO, people will consistently sign away all sorts of rights and delegate out all sorts of decisions if they feel that those they are signing those rights away to can do something that they feel they can't do, or won't learn to do themselves. See: HMO's, Social Security, Welfare, etc...

bobtomay said:

Don't recall the name, but there is already software out there that allows you to take a pic from the web cam on your computer remotely and it has been used for recovering stolen machines.

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But just having the ability to use a program like that is dangerous.

Anyone remember this?

Robbins v. Lower Merion School District - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Where the school was using software to take pictures of students through their web cams without their knowledge? They originally claimed the feature was to be used to track lost or stolen laptops, but they were photographing kids at home.

I vaguely remember Google "accidentally" capturing information from private WiFi networks. Ooops! I think they accidentally archived it for several years as well. Ooops! That sort of thing is suppose to be illegal. I wonder how it is that the existence of an abstract construct (a law) failed to prevent an actual event from occurring? Perhaps it's because laws carry weight only with people who care about laws? Or perhaps it's because laws also only carry weight when people actually enforce them? Illegal, but it happened anyway. As I said "Easier to ask forgiveness than permission".

Anyhow, another +1 for jailbreaking: disabling Apple's ability to accidentally capture audio, video and biological information about you.

XJ-linux said:

Of course, with today's corporate EULA agreements anything could be lurking somewhere in the EULA fine print.

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Like a promise of a $1000?

vansmith said:

Like a promise of a $1000?

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That's freaking priceless Van!

Doug b said:

I'm the user. I KNOW my phone has been stolen. What good is THAT info going to do for me ? I don't need a recording of the user's voice or heartbeat and vibration signature to find out that it's not ME whom is using the phone.

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If you read the patent, the features would enable the phone to recognize that it had been stolen and shut off automatically without you having to drive home, log into MobileMe, and activating the tracking feature.

XJ-linux said:

That's freaking priceless Van!

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I want free money. T_T""

Start reading EULAs .