The Creepy Files

[Deety]

With technology providing so many new ways to invade privacy, it's something that will probably be discussed more often around here. Let's have a thread until the computers burn it down.

Stuff that might fit here: Amazon's ability to take back Kindle books, DRM information-gathering, Google Buzz's stalker-friendly debut, Google Streetcar harvesting info from the wifi of households along its route, Facebook's on-again off-again privacy settings, that school that used webcams to monitor kids at home, and so forth.

Here's one that creeped me out today. The rate at which organizations feel entitled to our information seems to be increasing exponentially, and whatever privacy we lose won't be coming back anytime soon.

______

Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware

LINK

It looks like Apple, Inc., is exploring a new business opportunity: spyware and what we're calling "traitorware." While users were celebrating the new jailbreaking and unlocking exemptions, Apple was quietly preparing to apply for a patent on technology that, among other things, would allow Apple to identify and punish users who take advantage of those exemptions or otherwise tinker with their devices. This patent application does nothing short of providing a roadmap for how Apple can - and presumably will - spy on its customers and control the way its customers use Apple products. As Sony-BMG learned, spying on your customers is bad for business. And the kind of spying enabled here is especially creepy - it's not just spyware, it's "traitorware," since it is designed to allow Apple to retaliate against you if you do something Apple doesn't like.

...

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.

 

[FrancisSoyer]

Feck Steve Jobs and feck Apple - the most annoying company in the world.

/Posted from my Macbook

 

[MaxBuck]

I can see where taking the user's pic while certain kinds of websites are being surfed might lead to some interesting blackmail opportunities.

 

[Gatorubet]

Like football boards?? :p

 

[Gatorubet]

With technology providing so many new ways to invade privacy, it's something that will probably be discussed more often around here. Let's have a thread until the computers burn it down.

Stuff that might fit here: Amazon's ability to take back Kindle books, DRM information-gathering, Google Buzz's stalker-friendly debut, Google Streetcar harvesting info from the wifi of households along its route, Facebook's on-again off-again privacy settings, that school that used webcams to monitor kids at home, and so forth.

Here's one that creeped me out today. The rate at which organizations feel entitled to our information seems to be increasing exponentially, and whatever privacy we lose won't be coming back anytime soon.

______

Actually, this invasion of privacy is astonishing, frightening, and far, far more important an issue than any of the Mosque, Palin, Pelosi blah blah blah we all argue about.

Thank you Deety.

And nice blouse, by the way...