Iowa to launch smartphone driver's license

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/08/iowa-digital-smartphone-drivers-license/20114979

by cryptoz • 12 years ago

44 49 12 years ago

cgs1019• 12 years ago

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

cleverjake2• 12 years 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• 12 years 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.

NolF• 12 years 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-lo...

cleverjake2• 12 years ago

There is also Guided Access mode in iOS

seanp2k2• 12 years ago

Moot points: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/04/michigan-state-po... and this was in 2011...

kkamperschroer2• 12 years ago

The article makes no mention of this being used outside of law enforcement, but wouldn't this be incredibly easy to fake at a bar, for example? A nearly identical app except it's one where you can change the information. I don't imagine plastic cards going away, in this case.

andrewfong• 12 years ago

Possible solution would be for the verifying party to have a smartphone app that could scan a QR code. But it's an added cost to them for very little gain. That said, the state could certainly mandate that bars, etc. use the scanner app.

hyperbovine2• 12 years ago

So now the state knows when and where I am ID'd? Thanks but no thanks.

encoderer2• 12 years ago

Imagine a bizzaro world where everybody uses smartphone IDs and iowa was introducing a first of its kind plastic ID card.

I bet we'd see a comment just like this at #1.

rmc2• 12 years ago

Because plastic cards are unfakeable now.

kkamperschroer2• 12 years ago

Of course you can fake a plastic card today, however it's far easier to mimic and manipulate pixels than it is a plastic cards look, feel, holographic logos, etc.

dyeje• 12 years ago

So how do you prevent people from spoofing an ID?

uniformlyrandom2• 12 years ago

Cryptography, I guess.

Verification method must include authentication and authorization by means other than human eye reading some text off a card (digital or physical).

yaur• 12 years ago

The problem seems closer to DRM than code signing though.

Since I'm handing you the device I am in complete control of the output and can clone the output of another card or any signing cert/key embedded in the app. The incentive to do this is to: a) Get into a bar or b) Avoid being arrested on an open warrant. Either of which I can see someone paying and risk breaking the law to accomplish.

chacham15• 12 years ago

The problem with this is simple: IDs are meant as visual verification. By making an app to do this, you are now by definition allowing my machine to create my identity. Therefore, it stands to reason that you will need a visual way to verify that the machine created the right identity which in my opinion is a bad problem to have. Therefore, people suggest using a machine to verify the id, but that defeats the purpose of having visual identification.

A simple hack utilizing this vulnerability that would be hard to fix is getting someones phone and then replacing their image with yours (e.g. by running the real program in the background and an overlay to cover their image and replace it with yours, you could get fancier and find the distortions in the image below and apply them to yours as well). In any case, the key here is that a human looks at the image, not a machine.

joezydeco• 12 years ago

In my state (Illinois), a police officer can retrieve the digital photo that was taken at the time the license was issued. A simple radio check can also verify the other information on the license.

In reality, if you know your license number you don't even really NEED to carry the card. The app just just an easier way to carry that number around. I've known people that have been stopped without a license on-hand but able to recite their number, resulting in no trouble at all.

bicknergseng• 12 years ago

Furthermore, it's not like physical licenses are particularly robust against identity fraud. Go to the nearest college campus and you'll find a dozen kids with fake IDs in 10 minutes.

crb002• 12 years ago

The app would have to display an ephemeral UUID that a bouncer/cashier could scan and independently query to the central server on their device.

jonknee3• 12 years ago

Rather than digging through clutter in your glove compartment for an insurance card, you can simply hand the law enforcement officer your mobile phone.

Well that's one way to facilitate a warrantless search. Even without the obvious privacy element, "Sorry officer, my ID ran out of batteries" seems like a pretty common problem.

themartorana• 12 years ago

This - I can imagine how quickly a judge will find that handing your phone voluntarily to a police officer equals consent for the entirety of its contents to be searched, even if you just open the ID app.

And oh, the convenience. It's already unlocked for me.

frankus• 12 years ago

Assuming this acts only as a glorified replacement for a memorized license number, it seems like a nice convenience.

But the nice thing (from a law-enforcement perspective) about plastic IDs is that they can be made expensive to forge/alter, and (forgeries aside) it's fairly easy to restrict the number of copies.

jackmaney2• 12 years ago

I find myself unable to comprehend how anyone could possibly think that this is a good idea. If your ID is tied to your phone, then you're one phone-drop away from not having an ID. Phones are fragile.

pavel_lishin• 12 years ago

If you keep your ID in your wallet, you're one sewer grate away from not having an ID.

dllthomas• 12 years ago

I find I pull out my phone far more often than my wallet, and most places I pull out my wallet are not right next to a sewer grate. On the other hand, I also find that most times I drop my phone it works afterward.

jackmaney2• 12 years ago

Phones can also be dropped through sewer grates. Guess which of the two happens more often?

Drop your driver's license onto concrete. It's fine, isn't it? Care to drop your phone from the same height?

razster• 12 years ago

I've been in contact with the said governor and Land Border Integration (WHTI) to see if they'll accept ETC (Enhanced Tribal Cards) along side the application. My hopes are that I can start creating digital cards for tribes, a long side hard cards.

This will save so much time imo, and more secure than you're standard hard card which is way to easy to replicate.

liquidise• 12 years ago

Does anyone know the project cost for developing this app? I've done a fair amount of google'ing to little avail.

Iowa to launch smartphone driver's license

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