However, we have been contacted by a reader who tells us that the same technology could easily be used by the US police to stop people videoing them killing people.

There have been all sorts of riots and shootings in the US as minorities get miffed with the fact that US coppers have a nasty habit of shooting first and attempting to establish a crime later. It has not been helped by the fact that police body cameras have a nasty habit of malfunctioning when they film someone being shot.

One of the ways around this problem is to stop citizens filming police bad behaviour which would leave the coppers free to spin their version of the story to juries and avoid conviction.

Apple’s patent will actually allow the coppers to invest in an infrared light emitter to shut down photo and video recording on nearby iPhones. The suggestion is that if the technology exists the police will use it to shut down iPhones. It does not really matter what Apple thinks about anti-surveillance by putting the tech out there it is giving it to the police, who we are sure will use it wisely.

Of course it does mean that if you want to film coppers plugging your husband full of holes to show the world what really happened, you might want to invest in an Android phone. Our guess is that Apple will not release the tech, as it was its application was limited, now it could mean that it will be seen as teaming up with coppers who think justice is shooting unarmed black people after they have been restrained.