Steve Jobs is watching you - Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware

[lefty]

Here's a sample of the kinds of information Apple plans to collect:

* 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.

Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware (http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/08/steve-jobs-watching-you-apple-seeking-patent-0)

[Cry Havoc]

Meh, I seriously doubt this is as nefarious as it sounds.

The amount of public backlash it would cause would be absolutely devastating to a company like Apple. The first time someone gets wind of the fact that a phone they purchased was used to record them illegitimately, the gloves would come off.

Apple is far too smart to do this and use it for anything more than tracking stolen phones.

I hope.

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Meh, I seriously doubt this is as nefarious as it sounds.

The amount of public backlash it would cause would be absolutely devastating to a company like Apple. The first time someone gets wind of the fact that a phone they purchased was used to record them illegitimately, the gloves would come off.

Apple is far too smart to do this and use it for anything more than tracking stolen phones.

I hope.

Agreed, Jobs is far too smart to try and pull something like this. Too much risk involved, and for what?

[lefty]

I agree with you guys

But hey, any publicity, good or bad. creates a buzz

They won't roll that shit out, but now people are talking about them

[scampers]

All it takes is one bad tech working for Apple that abuses those features to create a huge shit storm.

Terrible idea.

[Venti Quattro]

Steve Jobs managed to pull out the iPad, what makes us think he can't pull this off?

[Wild Cobra]

By reading the article, it looks like an app the user can turn on for "in case of theft" purposes.