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I am developing an application for security purpose which has 1 requirement as "Wipe out iPhone data completely if iPhone is stolen".

While doing search for this functionality, I came across one application "Find My iPhone" here which supports this feature of "remotely wipe out all data".

I am not getting how this functionality is acheived. Can someone give me a solution for this problem?

I am not sure but I read that "Find My iPhone" uses "MobileMe Services". Can someone provide me usefule material or can someone explain me how to use this "MobileMe Service" for developing my application?

Tanu
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  • This borders on malicious. Especially when you're other questions are how to lock the iPhone and jailbreak the iPhone. – George Johnston Mar 08 '11 at 14:25
  • Is this permission even allowed to an application? – John Mar 08 '11 at 14:27
  • This is pointless im not sure if its impossible, even if it is, you have to pre-set it to allow access, if that is the case, im sure apple will catch up with it eventually and offer an update or something :) – Val Mar 08 '11 at 14:28
  • @George: I didn't get you.. Before directly writing applcations for jailbroken iPhone, I wanted to know what all things are possible with Apple iPhone which can be aceepted by Apple. And I am doing R&D on that. If features like "Data wipe out" and "Passcode lock" are possible for standard Apple iPhone, then I should being an iPhone developer focus on that. – Tanu Mar 08 '11 at 14:31
  • @Val:But i can't wait so long... I dont understand how "Find My iPhone" supports these features? – Tanu Mar 08 '11 at 14:33
  • @John: Please see that link for "Find My iPhone". It is possible and approved by iPhone. – Tanu Mar 08 '11 at 14:34
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    @Tanu:It was developed by Apple of course it was approved. – Sorin Antohi Mar 08 '11 at 14:49
  • +1 @SorinA btw isn't funny how they seem to find Susan? as if she is cheating :) and check up on her hahaha :) great idea for marketing, just like the private browser Microsoft brought out and try and make it out buying secret gifts, when they meant P*RN lol – Val Mar 08 '11 at 15:07

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Remote wipe is only available for Exchange users and MobileMe users(through "Find My iPhone" app). MobileMe doesn't have a public api or sdk as far as i know.

"Find my iPhone" is developed by Apple so it wouldn't surprise me if they are using some private API with some cloud services to achieve this feature. I read that the phone needs an internet connection and push enabled in order to make the wipe work .

Sorin Antohi
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  • ok..Thanks a lot for updating me.. But is there something I can do to implement this functionality without jailbreaking my device? Can you suggest any way out... I searched a lot and came to conclusion that on iPhone I can only wipe out contacts & calander events through application.I also want to wipe out Mails, SMS etc.. – Tanu Mar 08 '11 at 14:55
  • using the public API, as far as i know, it's not possible to do what you want. – Sorin Antohi Mar 08 '11 at 15:03
  • @Tanu - Think for a second about the security implications if any iOS application could modify the data of other applications. Apple prevents your application from breaking out of its sandbox for a very good reason. Frankly, I'm surprised that they give us the level of access they do for contact information, seeing how that could be abused. The kind of security application you're trying to build is not possible on a non-jailbroken phone, and if it is there's no way Apple will let it on the App Store. – Brad Larson Mar 08 '11 at 23:34
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You can't implement this without jailbreaking - simple as.

Applications are locked down inside of sandboxes. You can't access resources outside of those sandboxes - iOS just won't allow you. Your app doesn't have read/write permissions outside of its sandbox.

lxt
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