Leaked iPhone 4 and iOS4 Secrets
If you value your privacy and your freedom, you should stay away from the latest iOS 4 update and iPhone 4. Nakodari, from AddictiveTips purportedly had a conversation with an Apple employee “Alpha” who revealed some disturbing secrets about the new iPhone 4G and iOS4 to him. To explain it in simple terms, he found out the following:
1. iOS4 has code which sends updates to the user every 1-2 weeks and locks their system if they are not using AT&T as their carrier. AT&T and Apple both have 6 months of OTA’s in their server, according to the “Alpha” Apple employee.
2. Apple can check users’ baseband and carrier information and also see whether or not they are jailbroken when they call Apple Care Support. Apple staff has been instructed to void users’ warranty once they find out if they jailbreak iOS4. The full message that the Apple employee gave about the OTA is below:
“How it works is every 7 to 14 days We (Apple) and AT&T send a message to your iPhone that gathers some data from your iPhone without you knowing and we see what is running, baseband and firmware. We then send a following message. “There are optional updates for your iPhone, Would you like to install them now?” two options “Yes” or “Later”. Those are what would would call “OPTIONAL UPDATES” Now there are things called “MANDATORY UPDATES”. They tend to work the same way, grab data from the iPhones sends it to AT&T and us then back to your iPhone with the message, “Your iPhone (name of iphone) must be updated to the current AT&T standards to run”, your only option is to “Accept” Now you can try to work your way around it until you get the second mandatory message again “You must plug iPhone into iTunes and update” If you don’t do this you will then receive no Signal from the network anymore and your iPhone will potentially lock up with no signs of use until you update your iPhone via iTunes. You all agreed to this terms and condition when you installed iTunes 9.2 and then again once you updated to iOS4. With that being Said go ahead Try to unlock the iPhone it will only last 14 days max…”
3. On iPhone 4, when you use FaceTime Apple can check what two phones are communicating with each other and also see what location these phones are communicating from too. Here is what the Apple Employee said about FaceTime:
I will let you off with one last bit of information if your gonna write a story on this and that is Facetime, the iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 Wifi video connecting. The issue is with Wifi is that anyone can get on a Wifi Signal and potentially see what the viewers and broadcasters are looking at without them know, now Apple will deny this and say its not our problem you where not on a secure connection, in my mind I think that its all bullshit.
People should be able to have some type of security during those calls. Worst yet is once a person connects to another person on FaceTime it for some reason non of us in the office can figure out, sends us APPLE a message and says those two people are connecting via Facetime and gives out their location to us. So for whatever reason we need that information just blows my mind. As a consumer why would you need to let Apple know that you are connecting with a person via FaceTime, its non of Apple’s business.
Do you trust the “Alpha” Apple employee? If this is true, will this effect whether or not you update to iOS 4 or get the new iPhone 4? Let us know what you think about this in the comments.
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143 Comments
For those saying it’s impossible for Apple/AT&T to scan your phone for firmware and baseband, think of it this way: your phone already has a record of what firmware and baseband it is on, and you can see part of this record by going into General>Settings>About. Your phone is in constant contact with the network, sending and receiving signals. How much more difficult would it be for your phone to just also send your firmware/baseband in a text packet across the server to Apple? Perhaps it is not Apple that “scans” the phone, but really the phone that occasionally “checks in.” It isn’t much of a stretch for this to happen. I’m sure there are tons of regulations against this, but Apple has proven in the past that it doesn’t much care if it gets sued or not as long as it gets its way, or puts fear in the hearts of those who would go against them.
Mind you, I’m not saying that they will or even would. I’m just trying to explain how it is possible, and even fairly simple, for someone to implement a code like this. Text packets don’t take much processing, so no overload on the servers, and apps update all the time, so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to force a phone update.
Dude, It Is Possible For Apple To Communicate Both Ways To Your Phone. Same Ways Microsoft Communicate With Windows Or How Anti-Virus Companies Comunicate With Anti-Virus’s User.
This Isn’t Complicated. I Will Add That Apple Is Wrong. This Is Just A CellPhone For Christ’s Sake. Why All The Complicated Matters? A Phone Will Always Stay A Phone. Somebody Gotta Do Something About This. Why Should I Buy A Phone And Can’t Be Allowed To Have Different Sim Carrier? Even If I’m A Traveller Or Tourist. Sucks!!! Maybe Apple Should Just Make Iphones For It’s Worker Or The Bosses Wives And GirlFriends.
I do believe this is absolutely possible, however it is more likely that this is purely a ploy to stop people from jailbreaking. With Facetime Apple probably want to monitor how popular it is as this will inform the future development of APPS and possible use over 3G. Just because it was an Apple employee doesn’t mean they are intelligent!
This is a joke.. anyone who believes a word of this article as truth is a an idiot. Plain.. and simple.
~fsKD™
Seriously, Agreed!
I feel a little bit dumber having read this article.
i just wanted to understand this ios4 thing i dont really believe the story if it was true they should have been sued already
First off. Just ask a lawyer. It’s called privacy rights. Lawsuits would follow like crazy. Secondly it is possible. Third Jobs doesn’t care. Fourth I doubt developers of apple more than likely don’t care about this and are most likely not gong to take the time to code this stuff into the updates. There not paid to do that an also if they did that then people that buy iPhone would no longer buy and sales would go down and Jobs wouldn’t like that. Stop scaring people and find a new subject. The apple employee was just trying to scare a customer into not “unlocking” apple products.
jailbreak and unlock, if it last more than 14 days we know its bullshit, if they lock it up you know its true
The article ends: “Do you trust the “Alpha” Apple employee? If this is true, will this effect whether or not you update to iOS 4 or get the new iPhone 4? Let us know what you think about this in the comments.”
Do I trust the “Alpha” Apple employee? The “Alpha” Apple employee is anonymous. How could I trust him/her? The real question is: “Do you trust me [the anonymous writer of this article] that I actually got this information from an actual Apple employee?” mmm…. no, I don’t trust you. Why isn’t your name on your “report”?
Further: “If this is true, will this effect whether or not you update to iOS 4 or get the new iPhone 4?” “IF THIS IS TRUE…”?? Well that’s the critical factor isn’t it, pretty much indeterminate by anything here?
And don’t you mean “…will this AFFECT whether or not …”, instead of “effect”? Well, no. This article by an (unskilled) anonymous writer, quoting an anonymous Apple employee, will not affect my decision to by an iPhone 4. But thanks for adding to the sensationalized spew of non-information.
I call B.S. The only way it “MIGHT” work is if you are connected to at&t’s mobile internet. If they were able to check via mobile data network, that would mean they would have to check ALL at&t data phones.
If you are not using at&t with a jailbroken iphone, than this is not possible.
even if they did do this, a proper jailbreak / unlock would be able to disable it and / or spoof the information…
i agree, look at everything the jailbreaking community has come up with so far. a simple spoof of info would be easy compared to some of the complex thing circulating in cydia.
Do you really think that Apple has the time and enough servers to keep the information of billions of iPhones that have been sold? I don’t think they can know that, I’ve never gotten a message saying that. Have you? Also, maybe he isn’t even an Apple employee. He kept himself anonymous, I can say I am an Apple employee. No one will know the truth because I kept myself anonymous.
Also, if Apple did this, they can get in trouble for violating your privacy rights.
Actually it’s MILLIONS, not BILLIONS. Millions of iPhones have been sold. Text data packets are so small it would be easy to have millions of text messages go through the network. Think of how many text messages must be flying around right this second.
Additional: As for privacy rights – IF you AGREE to the terms in the End User License Agreement and that Agreement says they will collect XYZ info from you at Apple’s discretion, they CAN collect it. You can challenge it in court if you like… Hard Drives are cheap.
You guys are all ******* stupid. Such a waste of time to concern yourselves with rubbish like this. Buy the phone, don’t buy the phone, who cares. Google already have plenty of information on you. You’re not a name, you’re a number. Get over it, and yourselves.
I just ordered an iphone 4 with the new OS. So to answer your question, no it will not stop me from buying.
I personally think this is fake. I’m no iphone expert but after reading this article and having called apple numerous times, non of their employees speak like this. They will also never release this Information without having a serious reason as to why they have to. You think apple is going to degrade themselves like that? and this article just seems fake. As if someone has tried thinking about how they’d speak and what they would say but over yet under did it. Yeh this is something I know about apple gathering I formation but it’s different to this also you can opt out of the info sending stuff. I got a thing on it on my site o to http://www.ausclan.co.nr and go to iforum. You’ll find it there its not hard
Well, when downloading iOS 4.0.1, if you look in section 4 it says something along the lines of this. Something like (I don’t remember verbatim, and I couldn’t copy and paste) that for ‘diagnostic’ purposes Apple may collect certain data from your phone and that as far as privacy laws are concerned, that as long as they weren’t collecting personally identifying information that they’re allowed to do this.
I dunno…… this seems fishy. Worst case though, we’ll just have to wait a lil longer until they come out with a JB fix.
First off it is very possible to send the info without us owners knowing it.
Also, it would be perfectly legal to void your warranty based on this.
No, Apple cannot simply “turn” off your signal and disable ANYONES IPhone because no one would buy it anymore. And I could sue the $$$ out of them for disabling my device that I own, not to mention my lengthy contract with AT&T! So I can personally promise my iPhone 4 will never be under 100% control by Apple. They got my money. I OWN IT! They cannot shut it off. I dare them to! Here’s the best part….. When I do jailbreak my 4, and should I need service on it, I’ll simply do a full restore on it like I do on my 3GS! Done it twice thus far. And you all are so paranoid!!
Think about it, apple makes way more money once ppl start jailbreaking. That is why apple only takes 30% income of the apps they aren’t gaining anything. When people jailbreak and unlock more ppl around the world buy the phone now the phone for another carrier is about 5-700 bucks as opposed apps 40% they r making. Apple profits way more from jailbreaking and unlocking. And for some reason I think they work with hackers to a certain extent. Look at Microsoft they banned xboxs for modding it aka jailbreaking it. They were looking money in games. Apple was smart enough to leave the apps to the users So they won’t lose money and I honestly think they maybe working with hackers. Every hacker gets caught n punished at one point ie. Axxo the movie hacker. Jobs had the best techs… Ur telling me dev team n geohot will out due a franchise that has over 100000 techs? Maybe I’m wrong but look at all the other hackers for otter products they’ve had their day in court. Xbox, sidekick, psp, rapid.org, axxo!
I think this is crap. Apple would be screwing itself if this is true because people will sue and no one will buy their phones. Basically I agree it’s not true and as said above there is no source so how do we know someone didn’t just decide to make something up?
have u guys ever herd of privacy policy
der der der
i think apples bullshit. i mean yeah there products are outstanding, yeah its incredible what they do but to know everything about what a person is doing. what the fuck? like why do apple employees need to know im calling somebody? we people who own one of these products should have a little respect and prvacy prior since we paid our good money for it.
The truths been twisted the carrier can check everything you do and apple including listening to phone calls, facetime, txt messages anything you do can be checked due to the anti-terror laws e.g. Blackberrys were going to be banned in the UAE because the BBM application couldnt be checked by authorities.
this is bs. ios4 is awesome, im using it right now . i love it and havent had any problems.
In the digital age, anything is possible. Nothing is sacred.