Way back in 1984 a TV ad from Apple promised to smash Big Brother, and now, 28 years later a new patent reveals that Apple have gone back to their roots. Apple have received a patent award for what they are describing as a system that would clone internet users, giving them multiple digital identities and uses phony attributes of the clones to “pollute” tracking systems by giving them false leads, which protect the privacy of the user from “big brother.”
Apple awarded patent for confusing would-be snoops, feature destined for iPhone 5?
According to Forbes, Apple described a principle of a user whose activities online are mixed up with those of clones who have been generated specifically to confuse and hide the real users actions from those who may be performing surveillance. Patently Apple first discovered the patent which reads “A cloned identity is created for a principal.”
In short the clones will confuse anyone watching over the actions of a person online so they cannot discover what that person was actually doing, as the actions of the clones seem to the eavesdroppers to be those of the user. Therefore there would be no need to try and hide private information, interests or actions, as the network would be flooded with data that was false and the eavesdropper would be none the wiser. Clones would act in a legitimate and consistent manner to the point where it would be very difficult for anyone eavesdropping to detect between what the user was doing and what the clones were doing.
At the moment there is nothing to suggest that Apple will launch any products implementing the idea (::cough:: iPhone 5). However the language in the patent reads like a privacy manifesto. While the techniques that Apple describes are by no means new, it could be a sign that they have taken notice of privacy as an opportunity. It could potentially become a weapon that could be used in competition with Google and firms that are advertising focused. At the moment there are tools to help with privacy online, one of which is the browser plugin used by Albine which gives users the option to switch between identities they have created to throw off trackers. Other companies let you reveal different sets of cookies or authentication tokens and even generate burner email addresses with different identities associated with them.
Given the wealth of data the iPhone stores as well as the fact that you would be carrying it with you everywhere you go, there is no better implementation of this feature than on the Apple phone. And with iOS 6 boasting over 200 new features, we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple sneaks this one in by the time the iPhone 5 is released.
