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Iphone Freedom

RylelKlien | Apr 5, 2010 |

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Imagine, your one of the millions of people world wide that have purchased an Apple iphone 3G. You're excited to use the new GPS function, and sort through the online 3^rd party apps. You inevitably come across the social service application Loopt. This is a program that allows an iphone GPS user to track where friends are in the world, in any city, on any street. In fact you can watch them drive, and see which stores or restaurants they are dinning in.

Sounds like an amazing tool to keep in touch with your friends, but what if it isn't your friend your tracking? Even worse, what if it isn't your friend that is watching you? You might just call a fowl, an invasion of personal privacy.

This has become just one of many scenarios currently facing consumers. In effect a grey area is rising between personal rights and ease of use. While in the case of Loopt the solution may seem simple, (don't want it, don't install it); other circumstances are less apparent. Take for example Steve Jobs admittance of a kill switch, enabling the company to delete programs including data from any or all iphones in circulation. "His admission comes days after a software developer found a secret line of code buried in the iphone's operating system. The code seemed to suggest Apple was keeping a 'blacklist' of applications it did not want iphone users to have access to" (Beaumont). The implications of having this amount of control over a user's phone data is vast, especially considering what the iphone is.

With so many services contained within one device, Apple's decision to incorporate 'big brother' control raises concern. One person who has stated their concerns is Olga Kharif of BusinessWeek, "Apple's meddling raises a lot of privacy concerns. If Apple can disable your applications, it may also know whom you call, which Web sites you go to, how much time you spend Web browsing. It already knows which applications you download via iTunes. My feeling is, Apple has just opened a whole can of worms." What Apple states as a concern however are the implications of malicious software spreading across iphones.

Steve Jobs said in a reply to the kill switch issue, "Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull..."

An issue of future concern for Apple however, is if they ever decide or are forced to hand over this power to a third party agency, Governmental or otherwise. Considering the iphones global release this may become an issue of when rather than if. In fact it has already begun to happen in other scenarios relating to the Email provider Yahoo, reported in News-Tribune.net, "Yahoo had to comply with a demand by Chinese authorities to provide information about a personal e-mail of a journalist who was later convicted under state secrecy laws and sentenced to 10 years in prison, the company's co-founder Jerry Yang said Saturday."

The implications of a handover by Apple, or other all-in-one device companies are even greater than Yahoo's situation. Access to a device like an iphone could potentially reveal, tracking information of the user as well as their friends, family. It could also reveal photo I.D, contact addresses, emails, internet browsing activity, ect. It would also seem much more efficient for a governmental agency like the NSA, currently in charge of the wiretapping program in the U.S., to simply gain access to services like the iphone, rather than spending excessive time collecting information on their own.

One partial answer to the problem of personal rights in devices like the iphone is in the buffers created by using many different 3^rd party applications for primary functions. Keeping a minimal amount of information on the iphone itself would be critical. For example using email through Gmail or yahoo, and Flickr for photos, users have a distance between what information could be used by companies or agencies in the future.

While each of these services could be accessed through the iphone browser, they all have their own license agreements. This could also give concerned users more control over which companies they wish to entrust information too. Even more important, it could prove easier for consumers to pressure 3^rd party companies, many of which fill niche services, into provide more detailed and secure license agreements.

Consumer choice will be a critical aspect in defining what is morally acceptable when it comes to technology. They must make decisions not only aimed at ease-of-use, but also towards defending and furthering moral stability. It is possible in a world of global trade an economy, which consumers worldwide will need to define and draw a line together of what should be considered acceptable in these circumstances. They are perhaps the only ones who can truly steer companies into morally competent behaviors towards protecting consumer's personal rights.

However, so far the choice has not been beneficial towards this cause. Despite these rising concerns, High sales have continued in favor of the ease-of-use of the iphone. Since January about five million iphone 3G's have been sold worldwide. Many consumers identify with the Apple brand, which has accumulated a hardcore fan base. In the case of Apple, this means that their business practices could potentially become evermore questionable, while consumers find themselves more and more forgiving of these behaviors.

Other Works Sourced

"IPhone Security Flaw Allows Websites to Steal Your SMS and Mail Databases Within 20 Seconds | Cult of Mac." Cult of Mac | The Mac, the IPod, the IPhone - and the People Who Love Them. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. < www="" iphone-security-flaw-allows-websites-to-steal-your-sms-and-mail-databases-within-20-seconds="">.

"Unlocking Apple's IPhone Is Legal, Ethical, and Just Plain Fun. - By Tim Wu." Slate Magazine. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. < www="" id="">.

"Verizon Battle for IPhone Rights." Mobile News. Web. 05 Apr. 2010. < www="" verizon_battle_for_iphone_rights_5568262879="">.

The iphone AT&T source is provided to give further information about the features of the iphone, particularly the GPS capability as it pertains to this article.

"IPhone 3G S, AT&T and Apple - | Wireless from AT&T, Formerly Cingular." AT&T | Cell Phones, U-verse, Digital TV, DSL Internet, and Phone Service. Web. 06 Apr. 2010. >.