iCensor: Apple Patents Remote Kill Switch for iPhone CamerasBy Nika Knight Thats the potential ramification of a patent granted to Apple earlier this week for technology that remotely disables iPhone cameras by infrared sensors. While Apples patent application uses the example of a rock band preventing audience members from recording a concert, since the application was first submitted back in 2009 observers have noted that the technology could also be used by police, repressive governments, and anyone in power to stop citizens from recording abuses of power and other injustices. The patent was approved despite thousands of signatures on a petition seeking to block the technology from being developed. Heres the rub. The First Amendment and Article 19 of the U.N.s Declaration on Human Rights dont really apply to the corporations that build these cellphones and run these social networks. Free speech rules dont apply to Silicon Valley, wrote the civil liberties group Free Press back in 2011, and Apples cellphone camera kill switch can be used as a pre-emptive strike against free speech. Approval for the patent was also granted amid increasing use of smartphone technology to record abuses of power, whether that is everyday citizens recording police brutality, House Democrats recording their sit-in for gun control after Speaker Paul Ryan shut off C-SPAN cameras, or peaceful protesters recording assaults by police. Critics note that its not hard to imagine police officers disabling all iPhone cameras in the vicinity before taking any actionwhether legal or illegalagainst people. Technology website Engadget illustrated the argument with a potential situation: Picture this: Youre out for a stroll on the streets of Vancouver when suddenly you find yourself caught up in a depressed mob of hockey fans. Riot police are striking a young man with their batons near a squad car. You pull out your iPhone to capture a video of this seeming abuse of forceonly to see a flashing message on the screen that says Recording Disabled. Its also not hard to imagine Ryan having disabled all iPhone cameras in the House to subdue media coverage of the sit-in: If the Speaker of the Houses office controls when C-SPANs cameras are live, its not a stretch to assume it would control when iPhones can work, as theGuardianwrites. And critics observe that its much more difficult to pursue justice when no record exists of an injustice happening in the first place. While Apple garnered praise from privacy activists for its stance against the FBI when the government agency sought its help in unlocking a phone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters, its also been pointed out that technology companies dont have a spotless record on civil liberties. Indeed, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is skeptical of the motives of tech companies, according to a recent profile in New York Magazine. Corporations arent friends of the people, corporations are friends of money, he told the magazine. Image caption and credit: Free speech rules dont apply to Silicon Valley, observes a civil liberties advocacy group. (Photo: Ian Higgins/flickr/cc) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Nika Knight writes for CommonDreams.org, where this article first appeared. This is something a Crooked Hillary administration (heaven forbid) would approve of and use even though she prefers a Blackberry to aid in her on-going criminal neocon activities Trump will be no better. Any criminal in the world would be better than the ISIS gun running Hillary. His refreshing America First electioneering skills and the fact thats hes no neocon war criminal looking to kill even more brown-skinned people in the middle east portend you being wrong on thatquip. Crooked Hillary and her kind have about run their course with honest, Big govt shy, regular freedom liberty type voting Americansthank God Glad you folks bring this stuff to the table Kudos. I suggest ditching the iphone. 