Submitted by Marshall Walker on
An Apple patent application highlighted some new and interesting security features that could be utilized with the Find My iPhone service in the future. The application entitled “Proactive Security for Mobile Devices” lists several countermeasures to protect your phone and the information stored on it.
A lost or stolen mobile device can increase its own security level if incorrect passwords are entered, or if a user remotely activates the security features. Owners can choose to protect certain files instead of locking the entire phone, and sensitive data can be scrambled instead of wiped, then re-accessed after the phone is retrieved. Users can even utilize a surveillance mode where the device can record voices or its surroundings to help identify a thief or the device's location.
Or as Apple put it, "the mobile device can be transitioned into a surveillance mode where the mobile device records or captures information associated with one or more of user actions, ambient sound, images, a trajectory of the device, and transmits the recorded or captured information to the network resource."
Remember, concepts in patent applications are not product roadmaps and may never see the light of day. But hopefully some of these features will pan out to keep your iPhone, or iPad safer and more secure in the future.