iPhone Kill Switch: Potential abuses of system

On Sunday we reported that Apple were applying for a patent for an iPhone kill switch. The system would use facial recognition technology, the same as the one used on this Nokia N900 to gain access to the handset. As you would imagine iPhone users were not happy that Apple would be able to brick their handsets if it was jailbroken.

Apple believes that tracking the “suspicious behavior” is a way to ensure that the right user has the iPhone, but it is the “potential abuses of such a system” that has worried Marc Rotenberg from Electronic Privacy Information Center, which Geeked About Technology reported.

Rotenberg explains that companies such as Apple should not sell their products to customers, only to force their views on them. So if a user wishes to jailbreak their iPhone or other such device, then they should be able to do so.

Jailbreaking is not an illegal act, so why should Apple be allowed to brick a phone because the user wants more freedom to do more with their iPhone? Lee Tien also from the same company as Rotenberg worries about where Apple will store the data that they collect from the user and their handset?

Do you believe that Apple should be allowed this new patent, or what has been called the “iPhone Kill Switch”?