4 ms·

So now at traffic stops, "license and registration" can become "unlocked cellphone and registration"? No thanks!

by cgs1019 12y ago

cleverjake 12y ago
It specifically says you can choose to keep a plastic ID, so, yes, but only if you opt into it. Certainly interested if this is a way to entice people to unlock their phones, though.
- Kevin_S 12y ago
  This would be shocking to me. I can't imagine that this is so sneakily being used to entice people to unlock their phones to get around laws. As much as that possibility is something that could happen, I think HN tends to be waaaay too far to one side of the debate where this thinking dominates the main purpose of these kind of changes.
  - duaneb 12y ago
    The difference is that the law, even thought might not be intended to unlock phones for cops, it will be used that way regardless.
  - cryptoz 12y ago
    Who is making the software for this? Is that software open source? Did you know that US Presidential Elections use 10M+ voting machines that are closed-source, and made by a company friendly to the Republican Party? So here, the government steps in and says "here's some closed-source software that you now will trust your life, security, property and government with. You're not allowed to know how it works, if you try to find out we'll throw you in prison." Yes, HN tends to be wayyyy on the side of disbelief in the official words of the government on topics of software & trust. But isn't that healthy? Isn't that the way it should be? When the governments come at us with secret software and threatens us against learning about it, we should absolutely assume that it is intended for evil. Otherwise, how will we know when it "actually" is?
    - encoderer 12y ago
      > Did you know that US Presidential Elections use 10M+ voting machines that are closed-source, and made by a company friendly to the Republican Party Yet republicans have lost 5 of the last 6 presidential votes.
      - dubfan 12y ago
        That's just a red herring to make you think they aren't rigging elections! </tinfoilhat>
      - iak8god 12y ago
        Diebold didn't get involved in elections until 2002. The only Republican president to serve since then won reelection in 2004 and then left the White House with low approval ratings unprecedented since Nixon (< 30%). There could have been massive fraud in favor of the Republicans in 2008 (not claiming this happened) and the Democrats still would have wiped the floor with them. Anyway, partisan politics is a distraction here: the integrity of our elections is increasingly in the hands of a few voting machine manufacturers who sell hackable, un-auditable black box systems. Here are some starting points in case you're interested in this beyond the typical R/D sniping: * https://www.eff.org/issues/e-voting https://www.eff.org/issues/e-voting * http://blackboxvoting.org/ http://blackboxvoting.org/
    - Someone 12y ago
      "Did you know that US Presidential Elections use 10M+ voting machines" Not that the number of voting machines has any influence on the ease with which electronic voting can be manipulated, but less than 130M votes (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_S...), distributed over 10M+ machines? That's less than 13 votes per machine, on average. if that is true, someone has been overspending seriously on hardware.
      - cryptoz 12y ago
        Hm. Perhaps I remember incorrectly, and it was not 10M machines, but 10M votes "counted" through those machines.
  - uniformlyrandom 12y ago
    You do not need to unlock a smartphone to exchange the information with an external device. I would imagine that verification of said license should happen wirelessly.
    - hwgd 12y ago
      so authorities / anyone can now pull someone's license wirelessly and know who's behind the wheel without actually pulling them over?
      - duaneb 12y ago
        Well, they could always do this by running plates.
        jonknee 12y ago
        Which will tell you who the vehicle is registered to. That could be your company, an Uber driver, Hertz, your spouse, etc etc.
        duaneb 12y ago
        Sure, but my point is that in many situations this is already a reality, and people wanting to avoid this will be able to by using their existing, plastic ID.
NolF 12y ago
Android Lollipop has the option to pin the user to the app [1] [1] http://www.cnet.com/au/how-to/ho-to-pin-apps-in-android-5-lollipop/ http://www.cnet.com/au/how-to/ho-to-pin-apps-in-android-5-lo...
- cleverjake 12y ago
  There is also Guided Access mode in iOS
- seanp2k2 12y ago
  Moot points: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/04/michigan-state-police-we-only-grab-your-cellphone-data-with-a-warrant/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/04/michigan-state-po... and this was in 2011...

So now at traffic stops, "license and registration" can become "unlocked cellphone and registration"? No thanks!

by cgs1019 12y ago

So now at traffic stops, "license and registration" can become "unlocked cellphone and registration"? No thanks!

It specifically says you can choose to keep a plastic ID, so, yes, but only if you opt into it. Certainly interested if this is a way to entice people to unlock their phones, though.

Kevin_S 12y ago
This would be shocking to me. I can't imagine that this is so sneakily being used to entice people to unlock their phones to get around laws. As much as that possibility is something that could happen, I think HN tends to be waaaay too far to one side of the debate where this thinking dominates the main purpose of these kind of changes.
- duaneb 12y ago
  The difference is that the law, even thought might not be intended to unlock phones for cops, it will be used that way regardless.
- cryptoz 12y ago
  Who is making the software for this? Is that software open source? Did you know that US Presidential Elections use 10M+ voting machines that are closed-source, and made by a company friendly to the Republican Party? So here, the government steps in and says "here's some closed-source software that you now will trust your life, security, property and government with. You're not allowed to know how it works, if you try to find out we'll throw you in prison." Yes, HN tends to be wayyyy on the side of disbelief in the official words of the government on topics of software & trust. But isn't that healthy? Isn't that the way it should be? When the governments come at us with secret software and threatens us against learning about it, we should absolutely assume that it is intended for evil. Otherwise, how will we know when it "actually" is?
  - encoderer 12y ago
    > Did you know that US Presidential Elections use 10M+ voting machines that are closed-source, and made by a company friendly to the Republican Party Yet republicans have lost 5 of the last 6 presidential votes.
    - dubfan 12y ago
      That's just a red herring to make you think they aren't rigging elections! </tinfoilhat>
    - iak8god 12y ago
      Diebold didn't get involved in elections until 2002. The only Republican president to serve since then won reelection in 2004 and then left the White House with low approval ratings unprecedented since Nixon (< 30%). There could have been massive fraud in favor of the Republicans in 2008 (not claiming this happened) and the Democrats still would have wiped the floor with them. Anyway, partisan politics is a distraction here: the integrity of our elections is increasingly in the hands of a few voting machine manufacturers who sell hackable, un-auditable black box systems. Here are some starting points in case you're interested in this beyond the typical R/D sniping: * https://www.eff.org/issues/e-voting https://www.eff.org/issues/e-voting * http://blackboxvoting.org/ http://blackboxvoting.org/
  - Someone 12y ago
    "Did you know that US Presidential Elections use 10M+ voting machines" Not that the number of voting machines has any influence on the ease with which electronic voting can be manipulated, but less than 130M votes (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_S...), distributed over 10M+ machines? That's less than 13 votes per machine, on average. if that is true, someone has been overspending seriously on hardware.
    - cryptoz 12y ago
      Hm. Perhaps I remember incorrectly, and it was not 10M machines, but 10M votes "counted" through those machines.
- uniformlyrandom 12y ago
  You do not need to unlock a smartphone to exchange the information with an external device. I would imagine that verification of said license should happen wirelessly.
  - hwgd 12y ago
    so authorities / anyone can now pull someone's license wirelessly and know who's behind the wheel without actually pulling them over?
    - duaneb 12y ago
      Well, they could always do this by running plates.
      - jonknee 12y ago
        Which will tell you who the vehicle is registered to. That could be your company, an Uber driver, Hertz, your spouse, etc etc.
        duaneb 12y ago
        Sure, but my point is that in many situations this is already a reality, and people wanting to avoid this will be able to by using their existing, plastic ID.

NolF 12y ago

Android Lollipop has the option to pin the user to the app [1] [1] http://www.cnet.com/au/how-to/ho-to-pin-apps-in-android-5-lollipop/ http://www.cnet.com/au/how-to/ho-to-pin-apps-in-android-5-lo...

cleverjake 12y ago
There is also Guided Access mode in iOS
seanp2k2 12y ago
Moot points: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/04/michigan-state-police-we-only-grab-your-cellphone-data-with-a-warrant/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/04/michigan-state-po... and this was in 2011...