Film student Anthony van der Meer had his iPhone stolen and the thought that a stranger had access to all of his personal data really concerned him. What kind of person would steal a phone? Where do these phones end up? These were his biggest questions. To get answers, Anthony had another phone stolen from him on purpose, but this time he followed the thief using a hidden app and made a captivating documentary film about the whole process.
“Find my Phone” was possible because of a spyware app called Cerberus. Using it, van der Meer was able to remotely track and control his phone whenever it was turned on and connected to the internet. Anthony listened to the thief’s calls, read his messages, took photos, and even recorded both audio and video. The filmmaker then compressed everything into a thrilling 21 minute documentary movie which highlights how easy it is to spy on someone in the digital age. The video has already been viewed by more than 1.7 million people.
Latest update shows that his phone resurfaced in Romania.
More info: anthonyvdmeer.nl (h/t: petapixel)
This is very cool. Makes me a bit weirded out as I have a secondhand iPhone! It's interesting that van der Meer felt sorry for the theif, but in real life he seemed aggressive and hostile. Interesting thoughts about how we act when nobody is watching and how we act in the 'real world'.
Maybe not the most edge-of-seat-gripping short I've ever watched, but very interesting and a bit creepy (in a good way). And I am very glad I never bought a used phone O.o
This is incredible! Makes me think twice about flashing my phone when I am out and about.
If only there was something like the app he used for for iPhones as well. Find my iPhone is basically useless.
The difference is that a stolen iPhone is completely useless to the thief. You can't hack or install anything on it. It's a dead brick.
Load More Replies...you know what's frightening about this? that it is possible to track a phone remotely. Who know, maybe somebody's spying on us right now, without us knowing it...
Basically every government in the world plus big data companies.
Load More Replies...Fascinating! It's really interesting the compassion van der Meer began to develop for the thief. Worth the watch. I hope he got all As for his film classes.
Cool short film, teaching us how easy to spy on a person (and how to let someone to steal our phone perhaps :D). That's life on the 21'st century
They almost legislated a remote auto-destroy function for iPhone in the US! Failed due to something regarding lack of choice on the consumer's behalf (read: can't resell easily). It looks like it should pass this year. Fingers crossed.
Load More Replies...It's a shame though that its track to Roumania has not been shown. Not that I'm too happy about Eastern Europe having such reputation... But by the time these goods get to you via ebay, amazon, legitimate dealers, you really might thing it was a completely clean purchase. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons for which I'm not too keen on buying genuinely valuable products from such sites. Anyway. It would be fascinating if a documentary could be made about stolen goods travelling between countries. It might even reveal something about the consumers of the country of destination. What do we "export"? What do we "import"? I wonder if it could be done? -and not just with electronic devices.
Muslims for around the world. That's your punishment for being so naive EU.
How interesting! Great doc.. Love the language, it almost sounds like they're speaking backwards
I am more concerned about what the ultimate destination of said phone would be- Fascinating piece though.
A very well done piece, going through all the emotions of the phones journey, anger, revenge, sympathy, affinity, realisation. I have cerberus on my phone, perhaps i should leave it lying round :-)
Knap gedaan. Wat een tijdrovende onderneming. Ik zal hem niet aanspreken, mocht ik hem in de Linnaeusstraat zien!
instead of publishing a movie he could sell the app to the police. could get tons of proofs
I'm getting a bit of paranoid now. If a student has an access to such an app, what it takes to be used by the Government?
Edward Snowden talked quite a bit about this:)
Load More Replies...Sorry but there were two subtitles and were overlapped on each other and the language was foreign to me. But I got the basic concept
you can turn the subtitles off, just not the english ones in this case.
Load More Replies...I can just be sitting talking casually to someone and if I happen to say "seriously" my phone thinks I said "Siri" and starts talking to me.
we are very happy to know that you have all wisdom and knowledge in the world :)
Load More Replies...This is very cool. Makes me a bit weirded out as I have a secondhand iPhone! It's interesting that van der Meer felt sorry for the theif, but in real life he seemed aggressive and hostile. Interesting thoughts about how we act when nobody is watching and how we act in the 'real world'.
Maybe not the most edge-of-seat-gripping short I've ever watched, but very interesting and a bit creepy (in a good way). And I am very glad I never bought a used phone O.o
This is incredible! Makes me think twice about flashing my phone when I am out and about.
If only there was something like the app he used for for iPhones as well. Find my iPhone is basically useless.
The difference is that a stolen iPhone is completely useless to the thief. You can't hack or install anything on it. It's a dead brick.
Load More Replies...you know what's frightening about this? that it is possible to track a phone remotely. Who know, maybe somebody's spying on us right now, without us knowing it...
Basically every government in the world plus big data companies.
Load More Replies...Fascinating! It's really interesting the compassion van der Meer began to develop for the thief. Worth the watch. I hope he got all As for his film classes.
Cool short film, teaching us how easy to spy on a person (and how to let someone to steal our phone perhaps :D). That's life on the 21'st century
They almost legislated a remote auto-destroy function for iPhone in the US! Failed due to something regarding lack of choice on the consumer's behalf (read: can't resell easily). It looks like it should pass this year. Fingers crossed.
Load More Replies...It's a shame though that its track to Roumania has not been shown. Not that I'm too happy about Eastern Europe having such reputation... But by the time these goods get to you via ebay, amazon, legitimate dealers, you really might thing it was a completely clean purchase. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons for which I'm not too keen on buying genuinely valuable products from such sites. Anyway. It would be fascinating if a documentary could be made about stolen goods travelling between countries. It might even reveal something about the consumers of the country of destination. What do we "export"? What do we "import"? I wonder if it could be done? -and not just with electronic devices.
Muslims for around the world. That's your punishment for being so naive EU.
How interesting! Great doc.. Love the language, it almost sounds like they're speaking backwards
I am more concerned about what the ultimate destination of said phone would be- Fascinating piece though.
A very well done piece, going through all the emotions of the phones journey, anger, revenge, sympathy, affinity, realisation. I have cerberus on my phone, perhaps i should leave it lying round :-)
Knap gedaan. Wat een tijdrovende onderneming. Ik zal hem niet aanspreken, mocht ik hem in de Linnaeusstraat zien!
instead of publishing a movie he could sell the app to the police. could get tons of proofs
I'm getting a bit of paranoid now. If a student has an access to such an app, what it takes to be used by the Government?
Edward Snowden talked quite a bit about this:)
Load More Replies...Sorry but there were two subtitles and were overlapped on each other and the language was foreign to me. But I got the basic concept
you can turn the subtitles off, just not the english ones in this case.
Load More Replies...I can just be sitting talking casually to someone and if I happen to say "seriously" my phone thinks I said "Siri" and starts talking to me.
we are very happy to know that you have all wisdom and knowledge in the world :)
Load More Replies...
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