Apple Going Over the Top?
· apple, corporate, spying, stupidity
Originally published at https://holdenweb.blogspot.com/2010/08/apple-going-over-top.html
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.
apple corporate spying stupidity