Apple’s Keychain password management system is a fine tool. However, Apple wants to make it even better as evidenced by the company’s patent (number 8,479,583) for “conflict resolution for keychain syncing.”
In the patent filing, Apple notes that sharing data among multiple devices is an increasingly popular feature for users of multiple devices. The data-sharing feature is implemented by updating entire files and, in some cases, entire sets of files specified for syncing among the multiple devices. Many applications that provide a data-sharing feature send and receive the data among the multiple devices in an unprotected manner. Apple has taken steps to resolve this.
Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.
