27 August 2010 · apple, corporate, spying, stupidity

Yet again I rejoice that I am not an iPhone user. Indeed, given this latest news I might well just chuck  my Mac mini away in protest (no, you probably don't want it - it's an aging obsolete PPC mini from about six years ago).

In news from the Electronic Frontier Foundation I learned today that Apple has applied for patents on method of spying intrusively on the users of their devices. Here's a partial list of possible applications:

• The system can take a picture of the user's face, "without a flash, any noise, or any indication that a picture is being taken to prevent the current user from knowing he is being photographed";
• The system can record the user's voice, whether or not a phone call is even being made;
• The system can determine the user's unique individual heartbeat "signature";
• To determine if the device has been hacked, the device can watch for "a sudden increase in memory usage of the electronic device";
• The user's "Internet activity can be monitored or any communication packets that are served to the electronic device can be recorded"; and
• The device can take a photograph of the surrounding location to determine where it is being used.

So enjoy your iPhones. I won;t be doing business with a company that thinks this way. Sigh. I suppose that means the new laptop will have to be PC based.