Apple patent reveals rather unique way of detecting unauthorized use of your iPhone

While there are conventional ways of protecting your handset from unauthorized use, such as requiring a password before unlocking, or unlocking via facial recognition, a recently discovered patent filed by Apple has revealed the Cupertino company’s not-so conventional ways of detecting unauthorized use. One of the examples includes detecting the user’s heartbeat, although this might be tricky especially if the user just came back from a run or workout. Other examples used to detect unauthorized usage include getting the password wrong a certain amount of times in a row, hacking the device, jailbreaking the device, removal of the SIM card or moving the device a certain distance away from a synced device, such as a computer.

Once the phone has detected that the person using the device is not an authorized user, it will begin logging a variety of information, such as their location, photographs, voice recordings, screenshots, keylogs and etc. It was suggested that in unauthorized use, sensitive information can be erased and the functionality of the phone will be limited. An alert can also be sent to a predetermined number, such as to a trusted friend or family or to the owner’s secondary device, or even to law enforcement agencies with a message saying that their device might have been stolen. We’re not sure if this is a feature that will be included in future iPhones but what do you guys think?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple
Tags: Patent