Apple Kill Switch to the rescue!
p2pnet news view Freedom | Mobiles | DRM:- “Jonathan Zdziarski, author of iPhone Forensics, reveals (via iPhone Atlas) the remote url that Apple is using to keep a list of the offending applications,” said a p2pnet story last week.
It highlighted Apple’s ‘unauthorizedApps’ url which, “appears to keep a list of black listed apps which appears to contain a test application name”.
Now Apple boss Steve Jobs has confirmed iPhone privacy doesn’t exist.
[...] it is indeed possible for Apple to reach into your phone from afar and disable malicious applications,” Wired, quotes him as saying in a Wall Street Journal story.
“Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull.”
The point, however, isn’t whether or not Stevaroo can pull the switch: it’s that it exists at all and whenever he or his minions deem it necessary, for whatever reason, they can “reach into your phone” from “afar”.
Right now it’s for your own protection, says Jobs.
But what if …………………….. ?
Meanwhile, “I agree with Jobs that it’s absolutely necessary to include an emergency kill switch for Apple to remotely remove malicious applications,” says Brian X. Chen in another Wired post, going on:
“It’s necessary because Apple’s App Store team clearly is not testing these applications adequately before they’re available for download in the App Store.”
Further down, he says »»»
And though some found it hilarious, the $1,000 “I Am Rich” application – which does nothing – wasn’t very funny for those who accidentally purchased it. Apple then removed I Am Rich; an Apple spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that Apple made a “judgment call” to remove it. And that immediately raises a question: Where was that judgment call to prevent the app from making it into the App Store at all?
So as much of a sweet talker Jobs can be, he’s glossing over a pretty glaring fact: An emergency button that retroactively removes applications implies that some users will have to be harmed by a “malicious application” before Apple comes to the “rescue.” Jobs defined a malicious app as one that steals a person’s private information. And if any malicious applications make it through the door (at this rate, they will) that person whose information gets stolen could easily be you. Is a kill switch going to undo the fact information was stolen from you? No — it’s just going to remove a harmful application to prevent future harm that should never have been incurred in the first place.
“Here’s a question for you, Gadget Lab readers,” Chen adds.
“Would you prefer Apple to diligently test apps for security and quality even though the App Store would grow at a slower rate, or would you rather risk being harmed by malicious software while the iPhone-app list continues to grow exponentially?”
And here’s another for anyone with an iPhone: how do you feel about Jobs’ Ability to “reach into” it in the first place?
.
.Stumble It!
p2pnet – Apple ‘malicious app’ blacklist, August 7, 2008
Wired -Apple Sells 60 Million iPhone Apps, Jobs Confirms Kill Switch, August 11, 2008
Wired -Opinion: App Store Turns iPhone Users Into Guinea Pigs, August 11, 2008
I Am Rich – There’s an (Apple) sucker born every minute, August 6, 2008
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August 13th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Hey looks like FileHoover from ES5 got a job at Apple. *Yes I realize I’m probably the only one who reads this that will get that joke. Where’s RandomNut or SharePro when you need them??*
August 13th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Man I can finally sleep at night knowing that Steve Jobs is making sure I don’t have a rouge application on my iphone
Actually I don’t have one cause they are crap like everything else made by apple err probably made by 3 year old kids in a third world country in a factory that doesn’t seem to show up on Google Earth
August 13th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I am certainly not surprised that Saint Steve is a firm believer in closing the barn door after the horses have fled.
I think that they fled because, like me, they prefer a ‘reach around’ to a ‘reach into.’
August 13th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
The real question is how do you feel about Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft controlling all of the software and games that are available for your hand held and console gaming devices. If you don’t like closed system devices, buy open system devices.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
How long till someone hacks that? Give it a month? Or two weeks? And then they succefully reach into peoples phones and pull it. Oh Steve what have you done? Oh and btw is it 100% foolproof? No memoryleks and/or crash and/or lock capabilities? Only to remotely turn off the “malicious” software?
Al – It’s true that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft control theirs software but there is an easy solution to that problem. Unplug thy system. The phone kinda needs the network to work but I can play GTA IV offline.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Make up your minds, people.
Do you want Apple to have dictatorial control BEFORE or AFTER an application is offered to the public? Control BEFORE would force Apple to vet every application and decide what can be sold online. Apple doesn’t have the employees necessary to do that. It isn’t as though Apple is making a bundle off of selling Music or Apps.
Moreover, I could hear the cries of “Censorship!” from developers if Apple did that.
Control AFTER allows people the freedom to choose, at their own risk. If Apple allows the developers the freedom to post their Apps then some of the Apps will prove unsatisfactory. Some Apps will be malicious and steal your private data. Some will be overpriced. Others will just be rotten, get a bad reputation and never be sold. Some applications will break State or Federal laws.
A mechanism is necessary to control that. Developers won’t invest the time and effort to make “good applications” unless they can profit from it.
What Apple wants is an orderly market. This means one that mostly polices itself. But, setting up such a market is difficult, since it is always done through trial and error. There will be people on the sidelines constantly saying, “Apple should do this! Apple should do that!” If we are to have freedom, then Apple needs to do the minimum and allow the market to say where the breaks are.
This means that people have to get burned, swindled and disappointed before the market mechanisms are created. We have laws against horse thieves, because horses have been stolen. We have police to catch and courts to punish horse thieves, because these are corrective actions. If there were no horses or thieves, there would be no need for the laws.
This is a brand new market. Apple is right in allowing the App Store the freedom to act. But, Apple needs to promote standards for developers and customers to follow. They are simply a statements of, “If you do this–your application will get jerked.”
Of course, the time to set up those standards is beforehand, but the standards will evolve as time goes on. This is an imperfect world, folks. And Steve Jobs is a merchant, not God.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Buy DRM crud = walk into prison shower, drop soap.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:37 am
” We have police to catch and courts to punish horse thieves, because these are corrective actions. If there were no horses or thieves, there would be no need for the laws. ”
Yes we do.
The difference.
Due Process.
Whether the control is before OR after isn’t necessarily the issue.
It’s the lack of due process, with Apple, msoft, or any corporate entity
acting as judge, jury, and executioner without oversight or Due Process.
Apple, or ANY other corporation WILL misuse features like this for their
own benefit, without the programmer ( or customer ) having any recourse
or any say in the matter.
This will be abused by Apple.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Disabled the killswitch via SSH, thank god for the dev team and there amazing box of tricks, not having apple snooping around my device as they see fit