New iPhone Security Patent App: User Protection or 1984 iSpy?

One method the patent describes for detecting a stolen iPhone is checking whether it's been hacked (aka "jailbroken") or its SIM card has been yanked out - things a clever thief would do to override the iPhone's security.

"Ignoring the possibility that a false positive in Apple's proposed theft protection might activate the spy cam while the user is in the bath, or in the middle of some other intimate moment, this technology seems Orwellian for another reason: It gives Steve Jobs and Co. the means to retaliate when iPhones aren't being used in ways Cupertino doesn't expressly permit," The Register wrote over the weekend.