Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

More Fuel for the "Mobile Phones in Meetings" Debate

A.Boffin | 04.11.2005 14:44 | Technology

Sony Ericsson have applied for a patent method of forcing a mobile phone call to be answered.

I see in New Scientist ( http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8248&feedId=online-news_rss20) that Sony Ericsson have applied for a patent for a method of forcing a mobile phone to answer a call.

As they describe it, the handset checks the incoming number against a list of numbers that are "allowed" to perform this override. After a certain number of rings, the call is answered automatically and can start to listen in on what's going on.

There's lots of reassuring noise about childminders and emergency situations but the disturbing bit (for me anyway) is Claim 10 of the Patent, US20050227671A1 ( http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050227671%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20050227671&RS=DN/20050227671) where the components of the system are described:
"means for receiving a call; means for diverting the call to a voice mail feature if the call is not answered within a pre-set number of rings; means for monitoring the keypad entries input by the calling party; means for determining if the keypad entries input by the calling party match a pre-set code; if the keypad entries input by the calling party match the pre-set code, means for returning control of the call to the mobile phone; and means for automatically answering the call."

Notice that there's no mention here of the "white list" of allowed callers that makes up the bulk of the document. Stripped of the patentese, they've invented a way of allowing a caller to enter a code that will allow them to escape the Voicemail and force the phone to autmoatically pick up.

ARGH.

A.Boffin

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

This bugs me!

04.11.2005 15:52




This bugs me!

Blond, James Blond.


Yawn

04.11.2005 16:09

Yawn

Memory-Hole-Catchers-Mitt


Simple solution

04.11.2005 16:33

Get rid of the mobile phone.

They are an annoying waste of money anyway!

Anti-Fascist
- Homepage: http://www.boycottbush.org/


Whats Big brother going to think up next???

05.11.2005 00:52

Whats Big brother going to think up next???

jay
mail e-mail: jayfakhuri@yahoo.com


ALL mobile phones can be bugging devices

06.11.2005 10:55

Phone companies at the behest of security services are already able to use any existing mobile phone as a remote listening device. Although removing the battery stops this, phones can still have 'active' bugs within them and so shouldn't be permitted in secure meetings. The same goes for all ISDN lines although this is less relevant.

Also, security services can learn a lot from mobile usage even without listening in - if a certain group of activists all turn off their phones at the same time and location, then inferences can be drawn.


"According to some reports, intelligence services do not even need to obtain permission from the networks to get their hands on the codes."
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3522137.stm

Danny


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech