Want to Snitch on Your Neighbors? There’s an App for That

A controversial iPhone App is receiving mixed reviews from Americans leery about an expanding federal government. The so-called “Patriot App” allows iPhone users to report “criminal or suspicious activity to several federal agencies,” MSNBC reports, “including the FBI, EPA, CDC and GAO (Government Accountability Office), the office responsible for investigating public funds.”

Launched in September, the App also allows people to report workplace harassment and discrimination.  Playing off the Patriot Act, the Patriot App was created on the belief that “citizens can provide the most sophisticated and broad network of eyes and ears necessary to prevent terrorism, crime, environmental negligence, or other malicious behavior,” according to Patriotapps.com.

“Some bloggers don’t think this is a good idea, they’re likening it to Nazi Germany,” Swiger told SecurityNewsDaily. “But a lot of folks are very positive.” Backing that point up, Swiger said since the app was made free last Friday (Dec. 10), it has been downloaded about 400 times a day.

The PatriotApp, Swiger said, isn’t meant to be a “ Big Brother”-type surveillance tool that lets people report anything they deem “suspicious.” Rather, its aim is to use modern mobile technology to give people easier access in the event of a true crisis.

“I look at this basically as an instrument that can be used by folks to rapidly get tips online for various agencies all in one organized place,” Swiger told SecurityNewsDaily. “We‘re not doing anything that’s not already available. I look at this as the next logical step, especially in this day and age.”

Before cell phones, if you were on the road and you saw a drunk driver, you would have to race to the nearest payphone and report it to the police, Swiger said. But cell phones have removed that step and now people can report such an incident as it happens. This is how he envisions people using the PatriotApp.

“That’s what this is about, it’s about using state-of-the-art technology and information sharing and trying to do good,” Swiger said. “We wanted to show that you could use an app for something that’s important, not just entertainment.”

Not only are some concerned that the mobile application will create a neighbor-spy network for Big Brother, but national security analyst and director of GlobalSecurity.org warns that the PatriotApp could potentially bog down federal sites such as the FBI with bogus reports, impeding them from effectively operating.

“I think the FBI has already been flooded with useless tips from various public and government sources that have wasted a vast amount of their time to no avail,” Pike told SecurityNewsDaily.

Pike said that NSA surveillance of domestic phone conversations is a strong deterrent to preventing and intercepting potential terrorist acts. “Previously, the challenge of discovering the telephone number for the FBI would have been a deterrent to many people. But with this app, any idiot can play Junior G-man,” he said.