Eye Phone

When Apple Computer aired the now famous "1984" tv commercial, I am sure CEO Steve Jobs did not imagine this.

The iPhone, a next of kin to the product that was introduced in that very commercial, is spying on it's users.

First reported by German mac blogger Hendrik Holtmann, the story tells an ominous tale. Like something out of Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty Four" it is what the state of this technology has wrought.

Hendrik found that approximately one third of the iPhone apps he owned was spying on him. Grabbing and sending personal data such as his location (longitude and latitude coordinates), along with the unique iPhone ID, as well as, time stamp information on the usage of the nefarious apps. The worse part, according to Hendrik, is that the user has no idea and is not informed; it all happens 'in the background' unbeknownst.

The company responsible for the spying, Pinch Media, responds within Mr. Holtmann's blog comment section. "I wouldn’t think of us as Big Brother" says Greg Yardley, a Pinch Media spokesman, "we’re just a small business with a handful of developers, not a large governmental organization."

Well, one must wonder what the logic is there. Isn't a small company all the more a risk? Wouldn't they comply under threat or enticement of a government agency? Craigslist recently did, rightfully so. However who can forget how two corporate behemoths, Google and Yahoo, capitulated when China asked them for information about it's users. Users that China's government considered to be dissidents, because of their usage of those search engines, and therefore worthy of incarceration. With regards to Yahoo and Google, the media made it public; but with a small company the odds are that the release of information would be as much a secret as the way it was compiled in the first place.

The implications and possibilities for abuse are endless. Imagine what an insurance company could do with the data. If a user downloaded an application, say, that helped them remember their (HIV?) medication schedule or a weight loss app, or an app to stop smoking. Is it beyond belief that they would raise the premiums of it's policy holders or even cancel the policy? What if you downloaded apps that were considered to be of an 'adult nature?' Would this information be used in a court case to prove some obsession?

Unfortunately, the story that appeared on Hendrik Holtmann's blog hasn't gotten as much attention as it should. And the only upside, are the readers that commented on Hendrik's blog. But expect this all to come to the forefront when a company (or it's employees) has 'opened the lid on this' and sells or steals user data. It will be quite difficult to put the whole thing back into the past and will change telecommunications privacy forever.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE