For almost two decades, messages and texts have been integral to our daily lives. Sometimes, they can have serious consequences. What if Apple’s new features could change this?
Apple unveiled a slew of new features, enhancements, and hardware at WWDC 2022 this week, making techies worldwide drool in concert.
However, its new messaging edit and unsend functions could seriously harm people outside the tech industry.
Apple proudly announced that it would release three of the most requested features in iMessage: Mark Unread, Send option, and Edit. People are delighted.
Unfortunately, I have some concerns.
Messaging and Autocorrect. Business. And the Dangers Within
Lockheed Martin would likely have been thrilled to see the edit button. It could have saved them $70m in 1999 when they lost a comma and had to honor an unintentional discounted price.
Taylor & Sons were in operation for 124 years after releasing notifying people about Taylor & Son’s insolvency. Although the U.K. government was eventually found responsible, they were ordered to pay $17.2m. However, the damage had already been done.
Simon Silwood, for instance, claimed that autocorrect changed the word “buffoon” to “baboon” when he was imprisoned for posting a Facebook comment in 2021.
These were not sent via messaging apps but they could have.
When they first announced their edit capabilities, Instagram and Facebook sparked heated debates. Twitter recently announced its edit feature to much fanfare and criticism.
Could it be used to deceive?
Editing tweets could be as misleading as deleting them and reposting them.
Can edits make it easier for people who have shared tweets to view the updates?
Is it going to increase or decrease misinformation?
Twitter could be able to show users a log of edits and changes, which would solve many of these problems. Users may edit tweets or messages to have the original version deleted.
This would open up the possibility of the “oopsy” defense: send a hateful, false, or misleading message, claim it was an error, and then edit it. Although it may appear innocent, the damage could already have been done.
Consider certain people’s tweets about stock prices and how it affects them. You can also alter the last two letters of “kiss” to Ls, and the message’s meaning will shift into something entirely different.
I love the idea that we can finally avoid awkward work-related texts using the word “assess.” However, it is not worth the cost.
It could even cost lives in some instances.
Once in a bad domestic situation, I had to go through the courts. When presenting my case, text messages were crucial.
Here’s the scary part:
These text messages were my only form of evidence. It would have been nothing but a lot more he-she-said and a few witnesses from both sides proving that the other side was lying.
Without months of precise text messages and emails, I might not be here today
The Dark Side Of Text Messaging
For almost two decades, messages and texts have been integral to our daily lives. Sometimes, they can have serious consequences.
Kwame Kilpatrick was the then-mayor of Detroit in 2008 and was found guilty of perjury and violating whistleblower laws. He was fined $6.5 million.
Inflategate was almost immediately infamous in 2015 when Tom Brady and his New England Patriots were discovered to have deliberately altered the pressure in footballs to gain an advantage in the AFC Championship game.
An investigation was launched before time this year to investigate sexual offenses committed by former officers of the police who had previously worked with victims of domestic violence.
Each case involved investigations, charges, and convictions that were triggered by texts.
Somebody Will Always Find a Method To Use A System
2012 saw iMessage have more than 140M users, sending over 1B messages per day. Apple says that iMessage is integral to communicating with the people who matter most.
It coordinates parenting activities, discusses business deals, markets products, arranges dates, or argues with intimates.
This is why it’s so exciting to think of getting drunk messages unsent to mom that you sent accidentally at 2 am. What about other situations?
We know from heartbreaking confessions and court transcripts that it is not uncommon for women to be harassed and threatened for months via hashtags or text messages.
Police use them to catch bad men, for better or worse. Divorce lawyers love text messages, too. They were even featured in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard case that everyone has been talking about.
Apple has at least considered this. You can see that the message has been edited by adding a comment at the bottom. It’s not clear if you will see the edited messages.
Tech giants also set a time limit for the feature. Comments can only be edited for 15 minutes. This is still enough time to send a dangerous or threatening message to the victim and have it read by him. Then, you can edit it to be asinine.
They can be recited once and then stay with you for a long time. If the offending party doesn’t keep up with the threats that you can’t prove, it’s okay.
You might argue that screencaps are all you need. But here’s the truth:
Sometimes you don’t realize how important a message is at the moment. No one wants to be abused, stalked, double-crossed, or abused by a business partner. It could be too late or when you realize the importance of something.
It’s human nature to ignore signs that trouble is coming, even if they appear.
“…When a woman feels that her relationship is spinning out of control, it’s unlikely she will realize that her partner is abusing her.
Editing is something that the general public should be concerned about, especially when it comes to mass media and text messages.
Snopes.com discovered that a scammer had hijacked a user account in March 2022. He then edited 10 years of messages and posted links to create a fake account.
These accounts can be trusted and known by people, giving the scammer legitimacy.
Other Dangers in Your Hand
Technology has more dangers than just sending messages.
Experts warned of stalker before Google pulled seven of these apps out from the Google Play Store in 2019.
Online harassment has also skyrocketed. An estimated 41% of U.S. adults have been victims at least once.
For example, in 2019, 75-year-old James Taylor shot and murdered 70-year-old Catherine Taylor after finding her at her son’s house. Catherine, who had escaped Taylor after a domestic abuse incident, thought she was safe until Taylor used iCloud to track her down.
Apple announced today that it has an emergency kill option. This will disconnect everything and stop you from being tracked through your phone. At least not by those connected to your accounts.
Why didn’t this option come along with the original feature immediately?
iOS is often preferred because it’s more user-friendly and highly rated among the less tech-savvy crowd. How many iPhone and iPad users are aware that it exists? Are they able to use it?
Text Messages Have Changed Human Behavior
Text messages have been integral to disease prevention, management, and public health campaigns for over a decade.
All health providers use text messages to send test results, reminders, and appointments, check on addicts, offer diet or smoking intervention, and many other purposes.
Schools use text messages to reduce information gaps between parents, teachers, and institutions.
Smartphones have caused an increase in the number of injuries. Some studies estimate that as many as 82.38% of people have experienced discomfort from prolonged smartphone use.
The Google Effect may also be something you’ve heard about. This means that we are now forgetting information that is easily searchable on Google or our mobile devices, such as birthdays, factoids, and directions. Studies show that simple text can help you feel more confident about your performance.
What will this mean for those who can edit and unsend messages? Do we trust less? Will we look at other media? I don’t know, but I will be more cautious in the future.
