ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

[Yellow Mage]

Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware | Electronic Frontier Foundation

. . .







. . . I'm quite simply at a loss for words.

[Kailea]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

wow....I knew it would happen one day....but wow..... his ego FINALLY out grew his physical body, and he thinks he can actually do this.......

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

Hm... maybe I'll stick to my dumbphone for a bit longer and wait to see if Verizon is stupid enough to jump on board with such a concept (what am I saying, of course they are). I'm eligible for a Droid in a few weeks, but this worries me.

[Malacite]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

Fuck him.

He makes $650,000,000 a year. I don't care how brilliant he is, that's horse shit.

[Feba]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

Patent != business plan.

Come on guys, this is a video game forum. You should know that companies patent all sorts of weird shit they never plan to actually market.

A system like this would be ruled illegal pretty much instantly if used against normal customers. It could be aimed at security uses (selling phones to corporations/governments who already have the right to monitor what a device is doing), however, which would be a perfectly valid use of technology.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

Patent != business plan.

Come on guys, this is a video game forum. You should know that companies patent all sorts of weird shit they never plan to actually market.

A system like this would be ruled illegal pretty much instantly if used against normal customers. It could be aimed at security uses (selling phones to corporations/governments who already have the right to monitor what a device is doing), however, which would be a perfectly valid use of technology.

lolpatent

Go outside and wave, I'm sure someone can catch it on Google Streetview. Eventually, it will probably be able to be done in a high quality stream so people can know when you're not home. Not too long ago, that was high-tech stuff governments could do, before that it was science fiction, now you don't even have to hack a network to see it.

Hell, I ran my parent's address in that thing just a while ago. It auto-completed for me and it didn't do it from my browser history. I'm pretty sure everyone here didn't sign up to have our homes shown off.

Soon any device you own could have a camera, radio and GPS tracker in it. This sort of thing Apple patented doesn't have to go through legal channels to become reality. A judge declaring it illegal and all the legislation in the world doesn't stop spyware and keyloggers from existing, so why would a legal challenge stop something like this in its tracks?

Sorry, this just ain't tinfoil hat stuff anymore, its starting to become our reality. I think we have the right to raise our voices about privacy issues and even potential privacy issues.

[Bricklayer]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

1. This isn't patented yet (not really relevant to the conversation, though)

2. This should never get a patent (obviousness)

3. I don't have an iPhone, and never will if they go through with this

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the particular activity comprises one or more of hacking the electronic device, jailbreaking the electronic device, unlocking the electronic device, removing a SIM card from the electronic device, and moving at least a predetermined distance away from a synced device.

5. ...and transmitting an alert notification to a responsible party in response to gathering.
"The 'responsible party' can be any person or persons who are suitable to receive the alert notification. For example, the responsible party can be the owner of the electronic device. As another example, the responsible party can be the proper authorities or the police. As yet another example, the responsible party can be any person listed in a contact book stored in the electronic device. As yet another example, the responsible party can be a cellular phone carrier for the electronic device. In this case, when the phone carrier receives the alert notification, the phone carrier can, for example, shutdown any telephone service to the electronic device, shutdown the electronic device itself, or otherwise suitably restrict the functions of the electronic device. In some embodiments, the members of the responsible party can be chosen through user-controlled options, thus allowing the owner to select who can be notified when an unauthorized user is detected."

6. It's heartening to see that filing for stupid patent ideas and increasing the USPTO backlog are not the sole province of my clients. Even Apple is guilty.

[Feba]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

I'm pretty sure everyone here didn't sign up to have our homes shown off.

And what does this have to do with that? It's public property. What your phone records very much isn't.

Saying "I don't want random people looking at my house!" is only valid if you live in a location no vehicle can access without permission; like off a private driveway or a gated community. And I doubt Google takes those locations, given that they can't access them. If you want to live out of the public view, you're going to have to actually live out of the public view.

so why would a legal challenge stop something like this in its tracks?

Because Apple operates under the law, and criminals don't? That's sort of like saying "Hey man, serial killers kill people with guns, if we let our police have guns, how are we supposed to trust that they won't go around killing everybody?"

If Apple breaks the law, they can be fined, taken to court, have the bejeezus sued out of them, and, if they keep it up, will eventually be unsustainable due to ever increasing lawsuit costs. It wouldn't make sense for them to invite these sorts of privacy lawsuits on themselves; financially speaking; the potential gain wouldn't be greater than the huge risk.

I think we have the right to raise our voices about privacy issues and even potential privacy issues.

Of course we have the right to. But there's also crying wolf-- the more we go "HOLY SHIT WE MUST STOP <such and such company, law, etc>", and then they turn out to not be doing anything, the more people start to turn a blind eye to it. Bringing up a glimmer in Steve Job's eye and saying "Holy shit, NUCLEAR FLASH! APPLE IS BUILDING AN H-BOMB" is just hurting in the long run.

[Balfree]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

who will be to blame when you get robbed or murdered by some guy that hacked into that system and found out all about you?

this looks like all sorts of bs

[Ziero]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

The same person who would be to blame if some random stranger robbed or murdered you? I mean, this stuff isn't going to promote more criminal activity in any way shape or form...well outside of Apple illegally compiling all this info about you.

The issue here isn't the actual info about a person, most people give away all that stuff and more through blogs and facebook and junk nowdays. The issue is that Apple is getting this info without user consent, which is illegal. But at the same time, as Feba stated, there are real world business applications in which this kind of spyware can be used which may be the real reason Apple is trying to patent this.

Long story short, forced update that secretly compiles information about an owner without their consent or knowledge? Illegal. Optional update purchased by businesses to ensure their devices are secured against theft and misuse? Perfectly fine and dandy.

[Mhurron]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

who will be to blame when you get robbed or murdered by some guy that hacked into that system and found out all about you?

this looks like all sorts of bs

Phones (not just the iPhone) already keep this information, and people voluntarily put all sorts of shit up on social networking sites. How often has that happened?

Apple, and lots of other companies, seek patents on lots of things all the time, nothing ever comes of the vast majority.

[Bricklayer]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

Phones (not just the iPhone) already keep this information, and people voluntarily put all sorts of shit up on social networking sites. How often has that happened?

Apple, and lots of other companies, seek patents on lots of things all the time, nothing ever comes of the vast majority.

I agree for the most part. However, in a recession, companies are a BIT more selective about what they apply for. Usually, the highest priority patents are for ideas that are already being developed, i.e. soon to be released into the market. Some companies really do apply for every single idea (good or bad) that their engineers think of. But, that either means the company has money to burn, or they are just starting out trying to get together a large portfolio of defensive patents. I'd say that the chances of seeing this come to market are better than 60%, regardless of whether or not it gets a patent (and again, I seriously hope it gets slapped with non-statutory or obviousness).

[Mhurron]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

I agree for the most part. However, in a recession, companies are a BIT more selective about what they apply for.

Patent applications are insanely cheap and Apple is not hurting. They have no reason to hold back on just patenting what they can ship now.

A company that has to hold back on patenting something because of a recession is pretty much quite literally going out of business next week.

[MrMageo]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

Sounds like the privitization of the Patriot Act to me. On the bright side at least it is public, I am quite sure companies have been doing things like that for a while now.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: ATTN Apple Fanboys: How would you justify this?

Depending on how long you've been on the internet and how many family and friends are on too, there is a lot of information out there about you already. I know that I had a stalking issue with a guy that knew me from a chatroom. I didn't give him any information but a family member that used the same website unwittingly did. Its not just what you put out there.