Apple Granted Anti-Sexting Patent
PrintIt may have taken two years, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office finally approved a patent Apple filed in 2008 which sought to prevent users from sending or receiving "objectionable" text messages.
The patent doesn't use the term "sexting," however it's no secret that's what Apple was after. Here's how the patent reads:
"In one embodiment, the control application includes a parental control application. The parental control application evaluates whether or not the communication contains approved text based on, for example, objective ratings criteria or a user’s age or grade level, and, if unauthorized, prevents such text from being included in the text-based communication.
If the control contains unauthorized text, the control application may alert the user, the administrator or other designated individuals of the presence of such text. The control application may require the user to replace the unauthorized text or may automatically delete the text or the entire communication."
In other words, Apple just patented the censoring of text messages. But will it work as intended? If you've ever read a teenage text message, then you already know they speak a language all their own. Good luck to whatever algorithm is used to try and decipher covert sexting.
Read the full patent here.
More like this
20
Comments
Comments are closed on this article
nadako
October 14, 2010 at 4:57pm
This is how to make people switch over to other smart phones. Limit the user so much that they feel like they are in a jail and they will start to hate you for it. GJ apple on sucking balls again at killing your products.
nadako
October 14, 2010 at 4:57pm
This is how to make people switch over to other smart phones. Limit the user so much that they feel like they are in a jail and they will start to hate you for it. GJ apple on sucking balls again at killing your products.
Shrody
October 14, 2010 at 2:19pm
Apple censoring its users and fitting them into their plan. Surprised?
Mighty BOB!
October 14, 2010 at 12:09pm
Dear Apple: Have fun trying to censor every possible leetspeek spelling derivation, nickname, and slang term for whatever words the program may try to seek out.
Although I agree that underage minors should absolutely not be doing that over the phone, this is again something that falls under parental responsibility, not Apple's.
Walnut
October 14, 2010 at 11:47am
So you mean Steve hasn't been getting any of those naked pics I've been sending?!
I Jedi
October 14, 2010 at 11:43am
Implying its wrong to explore one's sexuality, and animal instictual behavior.
I Jedi
October 14, 2010 at 12:33pm
I'd rather have my daughter sexting than fucking, though both pretty much go hand-in-hand. Bottom line is that who was responsible for being horny as a teenager? Honestly, you two of you act as if it were some immoral thing to want to fuck.
tkid124
October 14, 2010 at 7:14am
Steve Jobs as much as I have a distaste for his work and often his censorship of what can and can't be installed on Apple products. (Read that he prevent the installation of apple on 3rd party hardware.) He nor Apple are trying to censor your text messages, but to create a tool that allows parents or bosses to censor text messages. The point would be that who ever is paying the bill would be the sensor, so you are giving up your rights to have the phone paid for by someone else.
Do I think it will work? Not really, a better method might be to send all of a person's text messages in an email form daily to the censor at hand. But then the person getting the email would have to know what they are saying when they type.
nHeroGo
October 15, 2010 at 11:45pm
...for explaining that it isn't for everyone, and the purpose of the application. Sometimes that gets sort of lost in a world of headlines. On a note of parenting; some people need all the help they can get, because there may not be enough parenting to begin with. But the ones that would/will use this feature would probably be the parents that don't need it - it's the other ones.
I Jedi
October 14, 2010 at 7:11am
I don't often use this word, except on those rare occasions, but MARVELOUS... Yes, Apple, please find another way to piss off your customers into joining the ranks of Android. God bless you, Steve Jobs; Your arrogance and moral-superiority about how things should be done are benefiting Android more than you know. Thanks again for this next great stride towards securing Android's position in the market. I don't often applaud SJ for making decisions, but I have to give credit where credit is due.
Blues22475
October 14, 2010 at 6:29am
This isn't going to work because teens are just going to circumvent the technology anyway (as they do so often). Moreover, whose business is it that you're sexiting someone else? If it's during company time and company phone I can see a problem with it. If it's a phone you bought yourself there's gonna be some problems.
YoshiHNS
October 14, 2010 at 6:45am
agreed. They'll avoid using the key words, or they'll be able to turn it off, since they're most likely to know the program better than parent/guardian most of the time. Either way, trying to stop sexting isn't going to stop people from actually bumping uglies.
rich5665
October 14, 2010 at 5:23am
Wonder how long it will take the ACLU to challenge this patent? I believe it runs afoul of the first amendment. And ho decided that Steve "I make the Rules" Jobs is the Moral Watch Dog anyway?
kylej628
October 14, 2010 at 5:21am
is nothing private anymore? what ever happened to the good times where if you felt like saying something in private, there was no problem. now you have to keep an eye in the back of your head no matter where you go because there seems to ALWAYS be someone watching. censorship of text messages? sounds like a frackin communist government if you ask me.
Apple = communist government
I Jedi
October 14, 2010 at 7:26am
First off, how does Apple equate to being communist? Communism is the ideal that everyone should be able to get an equal share in something. The only platform that comes close to this ideal is Linux, but even that is a bad example. No, Apple is a bunch of fascist elites, who believe that their platform is morally right and better than anyone else's platform. Second off, no one is reading the text messages, except a program that Apple will implement to monitor the text messages for keywords, like,"Oh, yeah, baby, your **BING** is so wet." You think Apple is going to hire thousands of employees to watch and approve text messages? Again, Apple will likely implement their new power by enabling a new program to monitor incoming and outgoing text messages. If Apple announced it was hiring 60,000 employees to watch text messages, the stock holders at Apple would be having a riot. THINK, SIR!
nHeroGo
October 16, 2010 at 12:51am
...but I found your sexting example rather hot. However, there is room for improvement. From now on I will send the following message to mask the true meaning of my messages "Oh, yeah, baby, your microsoft is so wet." That will stir up the hormones of my lady-friend. Perhaps I need to experiment by sweat talking her in person, talking about her "OS" and maybe "win a copy of her lucky 7" you know what I mean, wink wink. "I need to XP that Vista" (this is hot). Or maybe Jobs have already caught on to my genius and made "microsoft" a forbidden word. Damn! I hate it when people are smarter than me.
Maybe Apple can auto-correct poor texting grammar instead, you see, I said "smarter than me" and I should probably have said "smarter than I." Many groups would benifit from this new suggested patent. I think it is more important how you say things than what you say. You see, if you say something improper you are just a jerk, but if you say something improperly you are dumb. Auto-grammar would cure that while leaving us jerks alone.
The article mentioned that the algorithm will fail. Yes. Imagine that you need a different algorithm for every language. The word "sex" in swedish for example means "six" (the number 6) as well as the naughty word "sex" for example. "Sextant" I believe is the word for the navigational tool sailors would use to navigate based on the location of starts, but it would also mean "sex lady" or "sex aunt" which is a disturbing mental image.
There is other censorship happening in the world today that we don't think about. Before Google, I would search for Ferrari, and I would click the link, and I'd get to a page about a porn star named Ferrari. I don't know if I miss not getting that anymore, or not. I suppose it depends on who is standing behind me.
It's late. I don't know what I am saying anymore. Remember Google's application that would prevent sending e-mail at certain times of the day, say Fridays after midnight (like now), when people may send regretful comments to their boss or ex? Maybe I need some of that right now. Sorry for being lengthy about nothing. I am sober now.
Leif52pickup
October 16, 2010 at 11:41am
""I need to XP that Vista" (this is hot). Or maybe Jobs have already caught on to my genius and made "microsoft" a forbidden word."
Well, stick with Apple terms then. Is not a Snow Leopard just a big... er... um... "Kitty?"
nHeroGo
October 18, 2010 at 1:56pm
I will do that. Like this. "I am going to iPod your iPad tonight!" That's hot.
And another thing. Is it true that people take pictures of their genitals and send it from one cell-phone to another? It is not a part of my culture to do so. Will iJobs have an iPatent against that too?
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
The gang discusses the GTX 690, Trinity, Ivy Bridge, Amazon, big-box stores, MMOs,...
This month's issue
Feature
Build a PC On Any Budget
Feature
Cloud Services Showdown
How-To
Encrypt Your External Drive
Build It
Upgrade an X58 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Original RickRoll Video Returns to YouTube After 24-Hour Copyright Hiatus http://t.co/MaH9Sxyy22 hours 7 min ago
- maximumpc: Corsair has decided not to go forward with its $78 million IPO, citing weak equity market conditions http://t.co/A5a4DAzj22 hours 16 min ago
- maximumpc: Want to work at Maximum PC? Our Online Managing Editor, Alex, is moving away, so we need a new one. http://t.co/9Z7JCh0E2 days 20 hours ago
