“The patent, titled ‘Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device,’ would also protect Apple against jailbreaks and other unauthorized hacks to the device, which were recently excepted from copyright enforcement,” Goodin reports. “The application, which was filed in February and published Thursday, specifically describes the identification of ‘hacking, jailbreaking, unlocking, or removal of a SIM card’ so that measures can be taken to counter the user.”
Goodin reports, “Possible responses include surreptitiously activating the iPhone’s camera, geotagging the image and uploading it to a server and transmitting sensitive data to a server and then wiping it from the device…The application describes plenty of bells and whistles. They include voice-printing of the owner to detect unauthorized users (what could possibly go wrong with that?), activating the accelerometer to detect if thieves are in transit – even a ‘heartbeat sensor.'”
“Ignoring the possibility that a false positive in Apple’s proposed theft protection might activate the spy cam while the user is in the bath, or in the middle of some other intimate moment, this technology seems Orwellian for another reason: It gives Steve jobs and Co. the means to retaliate when iPhones aren’t being used in ways Cupertino doesn’t expressly permit,” Goodin writess.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Patents are not always used in shipping products. Also, patent application descriptions often strive to cover every possible use, including those that will never be deployed. If anything, this is a theft-deterrent patent application. Know this: If Apple ever starts killing jailbroken devices that are being used by their rightful owners, we’ll be the first to castigate the firm.
Sensationalist writing at it’s best.
What part of protect owners from thieves and unauthorized users has anything to do with jailbreaking. It’s a security patent. Not a freaking killswitch. But good job at misconstruing it.
Good! Go for it Apple! They won’t use this stuff to disable all jailbroken phones, but it will make scumbag thieves think twice about stealing that oh so tantalizing iPhone.
I don’t see this as antijaolbreaking, I see as antitheft.
More of a step towards corporate security.
MDN, your headline here is fail. You’ve been hoodwinked by sensationalist reporting on this patent.
This is about a phone using various clues to determine whether it has been stolen. Apple has presumably noticed that phone thieves follow a certain pattern, which often includes unlocking/jailbreaking as a precursor to illicit resale. But this is just a sideshow, an example of a clue that this idea could use.
Simply attempting to disable jailbroken phones would not be patentable, as there is overwhelmingly extensive prior art. I think you should clarify this headline so everyone understands this is an anti-theft technology.
I’m guessing these things are something the owner of the phone can do from their Mobile Me account after their phone has been stolen.
So, is Dan Goodin a click-whoring liar or does he just lack the reading comprehension to understand the patent he “read”?
Because, no, it does not “protect Apple against jailbreaks and other unauthorized hacks to the device”. No, it does not “give Steve Jobs and Co. the means to retaliate when iPhones aren’t being used in ways Cupertino doesn’t expressly permit”.
It’s an anti-theft system. It checks to see in an unauthorized user is using your iPhone. If an unauthorized user IS using your iPhone, then it checks to see if they are in the process of HACKING YOUR iPHONE.
If they are, then your iPhone might make a quick backup of itself to a remote host, and then commit suicide, preventing the thief from gaining access to your personal information. Information which will now be sitting on a server somewhere waiting for you to come pick it up.
The patent has nothing whatsoever to do with stopping people from jailbreaking or otherwise hacking their own fucking iPhones. It has something to do with stopping thieves from hacking into other peoples’ iPhones.
But here we have Dan trying to his best to create FUD saying otherwise.
The Register should take down his article for being massively disengenuous at best and issue a retraction, but who wants to bet they won’t?
OMG! Fire up my iCal, I’ve got to jot this down… MDN, said they might actually say something negative about Apple. The Steve will spank you good if you do. But I have faith no ill words will be spoken here, just like always…
@ US!
Wake up, it’s not the first time. The site is MACDAILYNEWS, what do you expect them do to, slam them all day long? if you don’t like it, go to a MS site or whatever but please…..
Go away.
Blah blah blah…
Oh by the way, people who don’t jailbreak AND give hell to those that do, Piss off. Don’t hate on jailbreakers for having some balls to do so, Jailbreak community has helped pave the way for some the new features in the iPhone and will continue to implement them long before Apple does. Yes swat at those who do illegal things like steal apps, but not those who merely use the damn phone to its full potential.
Boo MDN. You were hoodwinked and wrote a terrible title. The patent is antitheft, not anti-jailbreak (which is legal by the way).
I believe that almost all jailbreaker do it to steal software. It is hard to have any sympathy for anyone who won’t pay for software that developers work hard to produce. We should change the spelling of jailbreaker to S C U M.
Be happy, enjoy your family, don’t jailbreak
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Nothing to see here… Cars have remote immobilisation…cameras in car… and you can even talk to an operator about the dilemna…
Taxi have in car cameras, GPS location… and can be tracked when stolen…
Coporations have GPS transmitters on cars… microphones in car that can be activated… Hire cars the same…
cars, trucks trains and planes have had these kinds of measures in for years…
@ candTsmac.
Dude get off your high horse. Uncommon sense was talking about how MDN is usually a banner wearing zombie of all things Apple so when they said they will criticize Apple it came as a shock to everyone. This site should be about the daily news of Apple and not a anti-everything else that is not Apple site. Uncommon sense did not say MS was great nor did he mention MS he said in his first sentence ” fire up my iCal”. Which is an Apple software. So stop licking the boot of Steve Jobs and accept criticism of Apple when they are doing something to be critical of.
@Cubert
It isn’t going to stop thieves from stealing them.
Why?
Because they are stupid. That’s why they are thieves in the first place.
Jacob456
Chill out dude, now wipe yourself off and go outside and play.
The big boys don’t like you hanging around.
Your just like a fly that won’t go away and as a last resort is swatted into the abis.
That’s nice!
I believe on apple, because i use it, and then i believe my self on apple product. it’s feature and everything is amazing.
http://acaiadvancedcleanse.org/
MDN said: “If Apple ever starts killing jailbroken devices that are being used by their rightful owners, we’ll be the first to castigate the firm.”
Don’t you mean castrate?
Because it’s coming so get your rusty knife ready!
Oh Steve, how far thou has fallen from the “it’s better to be a pirate than join the navy” days.
If Steve wants to turn your iP4 into a brick, that’s what he will do and MDN, along with most of the lemmings on this site, will cheer him as a genius.
As always.
I hope it makes a sound like “Phaser on overload” or whatever…
If Apple starts shutting down jailbroken phones I see a big class action lawsuit coming. Not to mention a lot of heat from the antitrust folks.
@ MacDailyNews Take:
“Know this: If Apple ever starts killing jailbroken devices that are being used by their rightful owners, we’ll be the first to castigate the firm.”
Let’s see. I have a safety deposit box at my local bank to which I have limited access, even though I have every legal right to do anything I want with anything in it at any time.
Like Apple and virtually every hardware/software product, you get a warning if you attempt to change, upgrade or remove anything on your computer.
As we all know by now, we are legally entitled to jailbreak our iPhones, but Apple is not required to service and support them if we do so.
So if Apple does release an update which kills a ‘jailbroken device’, you would have to be really stupid to install it and a downright idiot to even admit it or blame Apple for your action. Just like I would look if I got caught breaking into the bank to get the contents of my safety deposit box and used the excuse, I was legally in my rights to have them.
Oh castigators! Castigate the firm and feel good being first. Yes.
Is this blog a battle to see who has the smallest wee wee or what? Get over it. You are not that important to the planet.