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back to article Apple launch iSpy certification scheme for snooping devs

Do you have a bright idea for spying on fanbois as they go about their fruity business? Now's the time to capitalise on it, because Apple have just launched a new certification scheme for anyone making stuff using their iBeacon system. Under the Made for iOS (MFi) scheme, manufacturers can now ask to append the iBeacon name …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Back to corded headsets..

    Sorry Apple, I enjoy your products, but this capability is seriously NOT in my good books.

    However, I do want to know what's so special about the ability to track a Bluetooth ID? I was messing around with that years ago on a Linux box. Or is the association of an individual with the serial number (which really suggests abandoning Bluetooth)?

    Any UK shop that installs it can be beaten to death by Data Subject Access Requests - you track me, I want to know what you have on me. And I know it will cost you more than the £10 it costs me to make it a legally required exercise for you.

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    1. Mike Bell
      Reply Icon

      Re: Back to corded headsets..

      "what's so special about the ability to track a Bluetooth ID?"

      The idea is that the user can optionally run an app that makes use of iBeacon location information. That app might, for example, be a British Museum app that pops up interesting information in the language of your choice, as you walk past an exhibit.

      To take this specific example, the app vendor can refer the user to the terms & conditions of the app.

      It falls under the remit of "Location Services" in iOS. The user has complete control over which apps have access to location services, and they have to be actively enabled for any app.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Back to corded headsets..

        The user has complete control over which apps have access to location services, and they have to be actively enabled for any app.

        Well, ish. Disabling WiFi, for instance, immediately starts a nagging process that will tell you EVERY *%&$ time that things would be so much better if you just let it burn battery by leaving WiFi enabled. Or that cell data is disabled, or (insert a million other possibilities). All that effort to nag you into using the device the way THEY want it, yet totally incapable of writing a mail program that recognises you've enabled airline mode and thus NOT fill the screen with heaps of warnings that it cannot reach a mail server. Well, duh.

        If there is something that drives me from any platform, it's incessant nagging - not to mention that, for reasons only known to themselves, the interface also lacks consistency: sometimes the buttons "OK" and "Change settings" swap position so you cannot be sure in advance.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Double jeopardy !

    They already track you as you walk past any WIFI hotspot so what's the problem here apart from iSpying you swallowing some iSpam with your lunch?

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Whats the problem?

    With any mobile device you are capable of being tracked, don't want to be tracked, don't carry a phone or other electronic mobile device.

    I usually switch off Bluetooth if I'm not using it and sometimes even WiFi if only because on the average smartphone the battery lasts a lot longer, this feature would be handy for the museum guide scenario though.

    Companies dream of being able to hit us continuously with a stream of targeted ad's but I think the reality will be that they will just very quickly annoy people and these features will be turned off by users or they will get enormous adverse feedback from satisfaction surveys.

    In the case of Government's etc tracking us, well they already do have more than enough ways to track us without this, there have been a number of cases where people have been convicted based on ordinary mobile phone triangulation data placing them in locations where they said they weren't, and if you really get on their radar even having no connected communication devices at all won't save you (as Osama Bin Laden found!), if it get's to the point where you have a team of spooks and a satellite dedicated to you then Bluetooth is probably the least of your worries, this is in the same category as store loyalty cards in privacy terms.

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  4. Lyndon Hills 1
    IT Angle

    Choice of name

    To me MFI is/was the manufacturer of cheap 'put it together yourself' furniture.The furniture was pretty crap and didn't last long.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Available on Android too

    bit at least it's optional in that you need to install it.

    I had some braindead friend that's iEverything telling me about iBeacon, he didn't seem to get that there was little benefit for him, and it was a way for companies to send him instore adverts and coupons, and that the technology isn't apple specific.

    Once I explained what iBeacon was, he wasn't so interested in it.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sorry

    And here's me furiously coding an ecommerce app with iBeacon stuff. I feel dirty, but it puts food in the kid's mouths.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm sorry

      Keep scrubbing you'll never get rid of that indelible ink

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