When are they going to make an app that tells you if you’re being tracked?

Removing the SIM card. Hilarious. For me, that was an indication that my Nexus One arrived and the 3GS was going to spend the rest of its life in a drawer.

But seriously, this probably has more to do with eventually using the device to make purchases than anything else. But consolidating things you carry has to be win/win. Like when I got my Nexus One, the TomTom went into the drawer to keep the 3GS company (phone + navigation). Or, when I got my 3GS, the iPod Touch went into the drawer with my old Sprint phone (phone + music player). Consolidating devices made sense in those cases. In both cases, replacing two devices with one didn’t cost me any functionality or flexibility. If replacing your wallet and phone with iPhone costs you not being able to use Cydia, maybe it’s a tougher call.

Sounds like a smokescreen… LoJack for lost iPhones gives you some help in finding the phone before the battery dies, but you don’t need the capability to remotely lock/wipe the phone since one call to AT&T will do that, and LoJack for stolen iPhones is useless since no cop has the time to run down every “stolen” iPhone (most of which are actually just “lost” anyway).

I think this is an invasion of privacy.  If I’m paying X number of dollars for the device the company in this case Apple, shouldn’t be allowed to spy on me to detect whether I am using it legally or illegally.

Dustin, you do realize that with services like On-Star, GPS, etc., you can be tracked in your car? You can already be tracked on your phone. Traffic and security cameras record your movement. Ever been to the UK? Try going off grid. And here in the US, we’re rapidly catching up.

Our movements are tracked on a daily basis. All for the sake of security and targeting us for ads that “fit our lifestyle.” Yeah, right.

I don’t believe it either.

Tiger,

I agree with Dustin. Companies are reaching too far into the privacy of the individual. Why should we pay them to track us down to our hearbeat patterns. Note Apple will also use facial recognition software. Are you comfortable allowing anyone with access to Apple’s “security” to watch you in your own home?

P.S. Who wants or needs Onstar? Seriously? Onstar is not a selling point in my opinion. No, I don’t want to give anyone remote control of my car or the authority to listen to me while I’m driving. If used for good, perhaps these are great technologies. But is this always the case? Way to open yourself up to identity theft, stalking, and invasive regulation of your person.

@Hilary That’s a good idea.  How about an app that will track the tracker?

The other important aspect of this patent filing that this article failed to mention is that it describes methods to detect and remotely wipe devices whose software has been “modified” or “compromised”. In other words, by monitoring obscure aspects of the operating system such as sudden increases in the amount of used RAM will enable them to detect and remotely disable jailbroken devices. The other 99% of articles I have read on this patent primarily discuss this issue, but it is strangely lacking at TMO…