The technology gods giveth. The technology gods taketh away. And when the technology gods happened to wear a black a turtleneck and came up with the coolest of shiny toys to win the hearts of the youth, it’s all wrapped up in a patent owned by Apple.
Via RSN :
Apple has patented a piece of technology which would allow government and police to block transmission of information, including video and photographs, from any public gathering or venue they deem “sensitive”, and “protected from externalities.”
In other words, these powers will have control over what can and cannot be documented on wireless devices during any public event. And while the company says the affected sites are to be mostly cinemas, theaters, concert grounds and similar locations, Apple Inc. also says “covert police or government operations may require complete ‘blackout’ conditions.”
There are no doubt good and legitimate uses for this technology. And then there is the ability to use this tech for evil, to foreclose the ability to video cops doing bad things, for example. But like so many uses of tech, it’s largely perceived by the public as good or evil based on promotional rhetoric.
“Additionally,” Apple says,” the wireless transmission of sensitive information to a remote source is one example of a threat to security. This sensitive information could be anything from classified government information to questions or answers to an examination administered in an academic setting.”
How great is that! This tech can thwart threats to our national security! Nobody wants our national security threatened. That would be unAmerican. So how would this defender of our national security work?
Apple patented the means to transmit an encoded signal to all wireless devices, commanding them to disable recording functions.
Those policies would be activated by GPS, and WiFi or mobile base-stations, which would ring-fence (“geofence”) around a building or a “sensitive area” to prevent phone cameras from taking pictures or recording video.
Pretty cool, right? Create a “geofence” around anything sensitive and there’s no way a smartphone can record it and send it off to Russia. Or China. Or Youtube. And who would control this magic?
Apple may implement the technology, but it would not be Apple’s decision to activate the “feature” – it would be down governments, businesses and network owners to set such policies, analyzes ZDNet technology website.
After all, Apple is in the inventing cool stuff business, not in the defending the nation from threats business. That would be a government job. At least we can all take comfort in knowing that the government would never use this technology to silence the recording of wrongdoing or things done by those “few bad apples” that would otherwise appear swiftly on the internet and alert the rest of us to what our government is up to.
It’s been a great ride, watching videos of cops lying and government malfeasance on the interwebz. Hope you enjoyed it. But with the help of Apple, the Halcyon days are over. Just as it was before, it never happened until there was video. And then the government flips the switch and activates this geofence, it will never have happened again, and we can get back to a society were cops do no wrong and never lie.
Thanks, Apple. Got any more cool, shiny things in store for us?
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So, if Apple patented this idea, then wouldn’t any other phone manufacturer who implemented the “disable recording functions on wireless transmission” feature then be (possibly) infringing the patent? So, barring a law requiring this “feature,” why would any phone manufacturer bother licensing the patent or risking patent infringement?
I’ll be sure to oppose such a law in Minnesota if elected. Then again, I can’t imagine this being a proposed state law, but rather a federal one.
You may be misunderstanding the utility. The feature works on all phones, not just iPhone. Apple licenses it to the government and business, who then have the power to kill the ability of others to use their phone to video. Easy-squeezy.
I think this technology (or something similar) was used earlier this year on the BART in San Francisco to try to quell protests after BART police shot a homeless man.
The Daily Beast reported of deliberations by the feds to use it before the world trade summit (under the “standard operating procedure 303”).
Could you not thwart this tech by simply turning the wireless radios off on your device? Should be as simple as hitting the airplane mode button.
Maybe, but how would you know when to turn it off? By the time someone realized their cameras were shut down, it would be too late.
I just skimmed through the patent itself (number 8,254,902). I certainly could have missed something, but I saw nothing that did not require the cooperation of the software on the phone in order to shut down the phone or any of its features. (The patent appears to include any method of remotely shutting down any or all features of the phone, including putting it entirely in “sleep mode.”)
Of course, the patent language claims that the user would want this feature or would enable it voluntarily. I think it is much more likely to be implemented as a default feature on the phone, either because all the phone vendors cooperate to make it that way (maybe with some incentives from Apple so that Apple can sell the technology) or because a law is passed requiring the technology in all new phones.
Stay tuned for legislation on this one, unless the FCC just “decides” to impose such a requirement itself.
The “dot-com” bust consisted largely of cellular phone companies whose management had predicted, wrongly, that millions of consumers would be willing to spend crazy amounts every month on extra-charge services such as text messaging and the sending of pictures by phone.
This latest “great idea” is them doing it again.
You can get a digital camera of as good or better quality than those commonly found in phones for under $100. The only reasons most people would use a phone for that purpose (even though it costs for every photo) are the “coolness” factor and the fact that it’s a convenient way to carry a camera if you’re only (or mostly) going to want to use it for special events or in unpleasant situations such as an auto accident.
But this new anti-feature does nothing but make the camera feature unreliable in exactly those kinds of situations. So as soon as it’s rolled out and the public learns about it, you can bet there’ll be a rush to “downgrade” to simple cellular phones and get separate cameras instead. Maybe even ones that can be concealed in your clothing, so the bad guys won’t know you’re filming them until the video goes viral.
Make our day, Apple.