Apple: New patent helps you find out who stole your iPhone

Apple has applied for a new patent that could make a thief's life much harder. In addition to the already existing anti-theft-mechanisms that ask for the PIN if unusual behaviour is detected, this system could collect data about the thief and send them to the authorities.

These data include finger print collected by TouchID, facial photos and voice recordings via the built-in microphone. According to Apple, users will be able to decide whether these data should be collected after several failed attempts to unlock the iPhone or already after the first failed attempt. The collected data could be stored on the iPhone or sent to Apple servers and will be destroyed once the iPhone has been unlocked successfully.

One problem, however, could be that it might be possible to collect the owner's finger print e.g. if TouchID doesn't recognize them correctly and starts collecting them by mistake. Thus we are not sure whether the system will be realized in this version.

Apple's last anti-theft-system caused several problems: It stopped iPhones from booting up completely after the TouchID sensor had been exchanged during repair.

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