In my (European) country now we can have a digital copy of the driving license on the phone. It specifically says that it’s valid to be presented to law enforcement officers during a check.

I saw amazed in the beginning. They went from limited beta testing to full scale nationwide launch in just two months. Unbelievable. And I even thought “wow this is so convenient I won’t need to take the wallet with me anymore”. I installed the government app and signed up with my government id and I got my digital driving license.

Then yesterday I got stopped by a random roadblock check and police asked me my id card. I was eager to immediately try the new app and show them the digital version, but then because music was playing via Bluetooth and I didn’t want to pause it, i just gave the real one.

They took it and went back to their patrol for a full five minutes while they were doing background checks on me.

That means if I used the digital version, they would had unlimited access to all my digital life. Photos, emails, chats, from decades ago.

What are you are going to do, you expect that they just scan the qr code on the window, but they take the phone from your hand. Are you going to complain raising doubts? Or even say “wait I pin the app with a lock so you can’t see the content?”

“I have nothing to hide” but surely when searching for some keywords something is going to pop-up. Maybe you did some ironic statement and now they want to know more about that.

And this is a godsend for the secret services. They no longer need to buy zero day exploits for infecting their targets, they can just cosplay as a patrol and have the victim hand the unlocked phone, for easy malware installation

Immediately uninstalled the government app, went back to traditional documents.

  • Transient Punk@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    17·
    14 days ago

    I just double checked on my phone, on Android you can pin the current app, that limits access for the user to only that app. Unpinning requires you to essentially unlock the phone again. I wouldn’t hand my phone to a pig either, but if I pinned the app, it would be secure enough for a traffic stop.

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
      11·
      14 days ago

      For people with iPhone you can do this too.

      Go to settings and pull down with your finger to get the search box to appear, then search for “Guided” and click “Guided access”.

      Enable this setting as well as toggling “Accessibility shortcut”. Now you can open an app and triple click the lock button and select guided access.

      Then on this screen you can press start in the top right or options in the bottom left to refine the controls, for instance:

      • Side button
      • Volume controls
      • Motion
      • Software keyboards
      • Touch
      • Time limits

      Now the phone is locked in that app and to come out of it requires the passcode.

        • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
          5·
          14 days ago

          No problem.

          Yeah it’s great for giving your friends your phone if you don’t trust them not to try and fuck with you for jokes. Or if using it for playing music in a group gathering.

          Even for children using the device. Particularly as you can set the volume and not give them the permission to change it.