Motorola Patents Method to Track People Who Switch Phones Frequently

A Motorola Solutions patent application published on July 4 lays out a strange method of tracking and identifying customers who regularly change their mobile devices. The application was initially filed by the company in 2016.

According to Motorola, people who change switch phones frequently could be “potential criminals”.

The patent application also provides that the persons that incessantly modifications devices will be identified as “suspicious”.

“During operation, a server constantly receives facial recognition data for people together with device IDs detected on the time the facial recognition data was obtained,” reads the appliance. “Devices associated with the person are determined. This course is repeated, and a determination is made as to whether the gadgets related to the person have changed.”

The application justifies itself stating that people who are up to no good may change phones regularly in order to avoid being tracked. While that may be right, members of various high-risk communities such as investigative journalists and human rights activists are also required to changes their devices frequently. Creating a technology to track such individuals raises grave privacy concerns which the patent application does not address.

The patent application envisages a large-scale surveillance community that tracks everybody in a city. The patent suggests a solution to affiliate every individual’s face with a mobile device. On this scenario, Motorola will have your face pegged to the smartphone through facial recognition techniques and different assorted monitoring tech unfold across the city.

“[A] facial recognition system and device ID sniffer (sometimes referred to as a stingray) may be implemented, for example, at the entrances and exits to various locations,” reads the application. “People and devices can be ‘identified’ when they enter and leave a location. This will allow multiple detections of each individual, aiding in determining those devices associated with the individuals.”

This patent by Motorola is shocking in its level of presumption and has already caught the attention of privacy conscious individuals. The ramifications of this patent can be catastrophic if the technology is not used diligently.