Patent application defines Apple’s proactive approach in curbing iPhone theft
26 Aug 2016
Apple seems to be taking a proactive approach in curbing iPhone theft going by a recent patent application.
The company has claimed a method for "capturing biometric information for identifying unauthorized users," including fingerprints, video or audio. The information could be stored or sent to a server, where it could be used by the police to figure out who nab the thief.
The system is quite simple. The Touch ID sensor, front camera and microphone simply required to be switched on without alerting the culprit.
The system could capture biometric data in one scheme after a single failed passcode attempt; in another, it is stored after a pre-determined number of failed attempts. In addition to storing video, audio and fingerprint data, it could save and transmit "forensic" info like a GPS location. The patent does not specifically mention the iPhone or iPad, but those are Apple's only devices with fingerprint sensors.
According to commentators, the feature might be on shaky legal ground, though. They say Apple understands the downsides of storing data without notifying users. They point out that while it was fun to speculate about patents, the tech rarely made it into actual products, and this one had yet to be approved by the USPTO.
Meanwhile, the full explanation from the patent is as follows:
''A computing device may determine to capture biometric information in response to the occurrence of one or more trigger conditions. The trigger condition may be receipt of one or more instructions from one or more other computing devices, detection of potential unauthorized use by the computing device, normal operation of the computing device, and so on. The computing device may obtain biometric information and may store such biometric information.
"Such biometric information may be one or more fingerprints, one or more images of a current user of the computing device, video of the current user, audio of the environment of the computing device, forensic interface use information, and so on. The computing device may then provide the stored biometric information for identification of one or more unauthorized users.''
