Among one of the recent patents awarded to Apple this week, was a patent that involved disabling certain features on your phone based on location. While we see that in our smart phones already in regards to volume and WiFi settings, Apple is taking it a step further and will rely on GPS, cell tower, or WiFi technology to determine the users location and then proceed to "change one or more functional or operation aspects" of the device.
These changes can include but are not limited to silencing all phones in movie theaters automatically, turning off WiFi in hospitals, blocking all phone calls in classrooms, etc. It's your very own personalized handheld Big Brother. While this is amazing technology, in the wrong hands one can understand that this device can put a lot of power into the wrong hands. If we were worried about Russia or China infringing on internet rights before, imagine these countries being able to overrule decisions on your personal wireless device. We will no longer be the owners of the phone, but rather the policies will run our phones.
These changes can include but are not limited to silencing all phones in movie theaters automatically, turning off WiFi in hospitals, blocking all phone calls in classrooms, etc. It's your very own personalized handheld Big Brother. While this is amazing technology, in the wrong hands one can understand that this device can put a lot of power into the wrong hands. If we were worried about Russia or China infringing on internet rights before, imagine these countries being able to overrule decisions on your personal wireless device. We will no longer be the owners of the phone, but rather the policies will run our phones.
Wow. It's scary to think that the tech companies are becoming so dominant that they could control aspects of our lives that we take for granted. It's not necessarily a fear of government anymore, rather a fear of the growing power or tech giants.
ReplyDeleteWhile I really enjoy reading your blog over the majority of other blogs, the title "Apple Rules (Over) All" is a very bold statement to say the least. By all means, this is a critical patent which they filed (disabling and enabling various features utilizing their location services feature on their devices), but if you look at what has happened to the company since the passing of their late CEO Steve Jobs, I'd make the argument that Apple's reign of dominance over consumer electronics, especially for mobile devices, is on the down fall.
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