Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware

“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.

“Essentially, Apple’s patent provides for a device to
investigate a user’s identity, ostensibly to determine if and when
that user is “unauthorized,” or, in other words, stolen. More
specifically, the technology would allow Apple to record the voice
of the device’s user, take a photo of the device’s user’s current
location or even detect and record the heartbeat of the device’s
user.”

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