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Apple Bans DUI Checkpoint Apps
An anonymous reader writes "In late March, four US senators banded together and wrote a letter to Apple asking that they remove apps that alert users as to the whereabouts of DUI checkpoints. Now, Apple has revised its app store guidelines to ban those type of 'illegal' apps."
Just in time for me to release my new "lemonade stand app" it tells you if you are approaching a lemonade stand, and to slow down just in case you are thirsty, or take a different route if you don't like lemonade at all.
So glad I ditched apple and went back to pc/android a couple of years ago when this kind of crap started.
... is merely to ban apps that contain checkpoint information that is not publicly available. A Checkpoint app that uses data from public police information is still acceptable, and nearly every police department in the nation not only publishes their checkpoint dates and locations, but ADVERTISES THEM on TV and the local news.
Everybody wants so much drama where there actually isn't any. It's annoying.
As far as I can tell, the Senators decided to write Apple precisely because there was nothing illegal about those apps. Reporting on police activity isn't illegal - yet, I guess. I'm not entirely surprised that those apps specifically were banned from the app store, because Apple has an interest in keeping legislators off its back and keep up the image of offering a wholesome version of the Internet. At the same time, I'm curious what other apps would fall under this, or if Apple is going to keep this little bit of TOS around only to remove apps that generate too much bad publicity. My guess is it's going to be the latter.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
This seems a "wag the dog" or some sort of odd complaint that came up.
Every time checkpoints went up, police told the media, who told the public.
Why this is a big deal, I dont know.
I do know that drunk driving IS a huge problem and these checkpoints do save a lot of lives.
I also know that punishment for DUIs are pretty lax, so if they want to stop them, make it tougher.
This is what freedom is all about.
Choose Android.
Choose Freedom.
Fuck the police.
The police definitly need more hackers.
Lets put the check on route #1. Ok now start the application that reports check points on routes #2, #3, #4. Suddenly you have lots of people that are directed into the actual check point. Especially people that were actually looking to avoid the check point and are the actual ones you want to check.
Erm. IANAL, but isn't liberty an important part of the American cultural and political identity?
Do AAPL have a leg to stand on here?
This comment was written with the intention to opt out of advertising.
Is there some app that will allow me to avoid politicians?
Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
Most DUI checkpoints are published in newspapers ahead of time.
Will Apple also be banning newspaper apps?
I thought that announcing the location and timing of DUI checkpoints was part of the awareness campaign.
Here's a random example from Google News:http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/may/23/police-plan-dui-checkpoint-over-holiday-weekend/
Are technically illegal.
Yet, the apps that alert people to the illegal checkpoints are being criticized.
Fuck, nevermind. I forgot, this is America. Illegal != Not Legal for The Gummit
Will Apple next ban "Libyan Rape-Squad" location apps? Or can Apple tell when the authorities are doing the right thing by stopping everyone and inspecting them, and when they're not?
I'm not so familiar with US democracy, but do four senators represent a quorum, so that they can write a letter that has the power of law? This sounds unusual.
According to TFA, the terms ban:
Apps which contain DUI checkpoints that are not published by law enforcement agencies,
But aren't all DUI checkpoints supposed to be publicized ahead of time?
because you know, folks can go to wikileaks.
There is absolutely nothing illegal about those apps. Senators stating they are illegal is an outright lie and violation of the 1st amendment. DUI checkpoints are in fact public knowledge because the public must be informed the checkpoints are in place, because they can prevent people from getting places on time. The general public is usually informed by putting in a newspaper. Because it is public knowledge, the apps are a extension of freedom of speech. It would be the same as an application that allows you to read newspaper articles on sports.
Just because you are wrong and I called you out on it doesn't mean I am a Troll.
As long as they're the only ones allowed to sell apps to the Apple iPod/iPad/whatever then they have a monopoly. And refusing for no good reason is an illegal abuse of that monopoly.
so now the apps are 'illegal', and they are not even drugs or weapons.
You can't handle the truth.
I would think a company like Apple would respond differently to political pressure. Checkpoints to begin with skirt a fine line with the 4th amendment, being stopped by the police for no reason so they can observe you up-close and perform an interrogation. The last time I went through one of those things there must have been about 20 or 30 cops standing around. I would think having those guys driving around looking for erratic drivers would be a better use of resources.
"It's fun to obey the machine" - Ralph Wiggum
How about an app that you enter the name of a politician and you can enter details of something they have done that you heard about or check what others have reported about your favorite/hated officials. Info like where they are available in the public or where they are making public speeches just in-case you want to communicate with them or throw a sign at them.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Ahh, so now I know why Obama met with Steve Jobs. Maybe it was to create new federal agency with Apple behind its control?
Lets be creative shall we? It might be called APP = Apple Policy of Protection. Yup, there's an APP for that.
Life is not for the lazy.
http://www.reason.tv/video/show/banning-dui-apps
I freely admit I'm an Apple fanboy. I cut my ML/assembly teeth on an Apple //+ for cripes sake. Next to my *undying* love affair with my Commodore Amiga, Apple makes the coolest tech out there (I know, not a popular opinion here on slash, but my opinion nonetheless). Anyway, even for a lock-step-kool-aid-drinking-jobs-diciple like me, this is a really stupid move by Apple. You can find plenty of legitimate arguments for applications like this, just like you can find legitimate uses for bit-torrent, and legitimate uses for a 9mm handgun. Tools are simply tools (both the sense of inanimate objects and people). - Geo...
What if I just want to avoid these checkpoints when I'm sober? If avoiding checkpoints is criminal then only criminals will avoid checkpoints.
"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything."
When I was 14, I watched my best friend get run over and drug 88 feet under a pickup truck by a drunk driver. I abhor drinking and driving. But it's wrong on Apple's part, and it's just edging us that much further into a police state with fewer and fewer liberties, freedom, free speech, or choices.
100% of the people passing a DUI checkpoint is drunk, then, is it?
Or maybe there are sober people who don't want to be stopped at a DUI checkpoint.
make it a mobile HTML5 web page with map overlay
1. Those who are DUI and therefore don't want to get cought up in the required checkpoint.
2. Those who aren't DUI, but don't want to get cought up in the checkpoint because they don't want to deal with the stop, delay in their travel, potential of accidents/crashes.
If apple is going to ban these kinds of apps, it could be (possibly) extended to include maping, driving directions, social traffic conditions. IMO, it's a slippery path.
While you are at it Apple, why don't you just ban the damn alcohol ( OH )
An App description for photos of Apple, Napolitano, and various police "check points" around the country where they will stop you, feel you up, and arrest your a** since this is no longer a free country... Welcome to 1984....
You really need to read up on what monopoly means and what it means to abuse it.
You see, abuse of a monopoly position is both illegal AND actions "that make me so angwy". Just like being abused any other way makes people angwy.
Or do you prefer being abused?
Most DUI checkpoints, if not all, are released as public info in the weeks prior to them. There is nothing "illegal" about the app in and of itself. I'm glad Apple decided to ban them, however, because people are stupid as it is concerning DUIs, an app like this might make certain dumb****s feel less vulnerable and more likely to drive.
Related note, to all those people that think you have to be above 0.08% BAC (in CA) to be DUI- not true. In California, if you are above 0.08, it makes no difference how well you can perform the field sobriety tests. By nature of you being 0.08 or above, you are presumed to be under the influence. If you are under 0.08 you can still get a DUI (even as low as 0.01, like, 1/10 of a beer), the officer would just have to prove you were DUI based upon the FSTs he conducted. As well, you can be DUI with 0.00 BAC- if you're smoking weed or even taking prescription Vicodin or codeine. There's a reason those medicines say, "DO NOT OPERATE HEAVY MACHINERY WHILE TAKING THIS MEDICATION..." Cars are heavy machinery, it makes no difference if it's what the doctor told you to do.
In Rio de Janeiro, where checkpoints are now common, people just use Twitter.
What about people that work late hours that tend to be driving home from work at bar time? Are they just presumed guilty until proven innocent?
I have every right to use all available information to help me plan the most efficient trip home possible. As someone that hasn't even touched a drink in 3 years I find it insulting that I have to sit through a 20 minute checkpoint because a small percentage of drivers on the road at a particular time are scumbag drunk drivers.
This is why I am thankful for Android. You don't have to go to an "App Store" in order to install applications.
Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's ethical and vice versa. Apple tends to stick to what it thinks is the moral high road. Helping keep drunk drivers on the road certainly isn't something I'd expect Apple to align themselves with.
They should do another 1984 commercial, but this time just go all out and embrace Big Brother.
This one makes sense. Gotta keep people watching the local news somehow! I guess all the news stations in San Diego are part of this "illegal" activity! This is why I will NEVER own any crapple product!
And you could always not drive a car and thereby avoid the GM monopoly. Or not have a telephone and walk to talk to people and avoid the Ma Bell monopoly.
But all of those ideas, like you, are really stupid.
And most of you called AOL a walled garden. Apple is the supreme walled in garden.I'm not saying its a bad thing,it lets people who have different morals let the Vender's do there dirty work :}
Jack of all trades,master of none
From wikipedia, "...the California Supreme Court (Ingersoll v. Palmer (43 Cal.3d 1321 (1987)) wherein the Court set forth what it felt to be necessary standards in planning and administering a sobriety checkpoint"
those standards include,
"Advance publicity is necessary to reduce the intrusiveness of the checkpoint and increase its deterrent effect."
The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration also issued guidelines for sobriety checkpoints in response to a US Supreme Court decision that allowed such checkpoints. These guidelines also required advanced publicity of checkpoints to maximize the deterrent effect and to minimize traffic disruption.
So it seems to me that in this time when few read the newspaper where this advanced publicity is usually buried on the page B29 that an app like this is nearly required instead of being illegal, at least in California.
-- QED
Reason #437 to dislike the Apple App Store. Publishing data on police checkpoints is neither illegal nor immoral. This is publicly available information (police departments frequently publish it themselves). This is yet another arbitrary restriction on Apple's part.
Clearly (at least to me) they are. The question is whether screwing over your customers because The Man asked you to is the right thing to do. Clearly, it's not.
Illegal Apps? That's funny, because most cities publish the date and times of these checkpoints. So how the hell is putting publicly available info into an CrApple App illegal? Pure idiocy
The 4th Amendment will be preserved, even without the iCult's help.
It makes my glad to be a Blackberry owner. I can get my apps from whomever I want. RIM knows I'm a big boy who's able to make his own decisions. Hell, I can even write my own and I don't need anyone's permission to install it. Freedom is awesome.
"The letter was penned by U.S. Senators Harry Reid from Nevada, Charles E. Schumer from New York, Frank Lautenberg from New Jersey, and Tom Udall from New Mexico"
Dear relevant constituents,
Please vote for someone *else* next time.
Sincerely,
The First and the Fourth Amendment
They'll just created an iPhone optimized webapp.....then Apple couldn't reject it because they don't have to submit it.
Back in the day, I used to have to decide for myself what programs were appropriate for my devices and computers. Now Apple does it for me on my iPhone and iPad. And now with the launch of the Mac App Store, soon they'll tell me what's appropriate on my PC too. It's nice when someone gives you tough love. Soon I won't have to worry at all about malware anymore, or any other software that Apple thinks is inappropriate for me.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
With the blatant stupidity I have seen from our UK friends like this, it's amazing the Iroquois didn't kick your dumb asses all the way back across the Atlantic, not to mention the Hindus.
What, the stiff upper lip keep the blood from getting to your brain?
Your tiny little island, is unfortunately a big fan of censorship, eavesdropping, and other nanny-state BS so I know it might be hard to realize that some places, rights are held to be important aspects, even above some degree of safety sometimes.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215010/RIM_bows_to_pressure_yanks_BlackBerry_DUI_checkpoint_app
This appears to be the application in question:
http://www.phantomalert.com/
It does speed traps, dangerous curves, school zones, photo enforcement...
Where does this stop? Will they also ban "venues" from Four Square created for speed traps?
Bullshit. I have been subjected to one of these DUI checkpoints. The police stop every nth car whether or not alcohol is smelled or suspected. I happened to be the lucky number n car. They required me to remove my glasses and submit to a field sobriety test. In Ohio, there is no publication of checkpoints, so in order to get around the 4th amendment, they test "randomly". i.e. every nth car. That is, unless they happen to smell or see alcohol. Then you are busted anyway.
There is absolutely no "justifiable" or "probable" cause whatsoever. I was simply collateral damage so they can visually inspect each and every motorist on a specific stretch of highway. Of course, I could have refused to submit to the test and automatically lost my license for 6 months. This is another of Ohio's wonderful laws.
As a non-drinker, this bullshit infuriates me. I have to prove innocence during a non-justified traffic stop.
So, US senators asked Apple to ban apps that report DUI checkpoints. In response Apple changes rules to say that apps can not report DUI checkpoints which are not published, although legally all checkpoints must be published or they are illegal. I read this as Apple pointing out the hypocrisy of the fed government's request.
I'm curious about these studies you don't cite. Most of what I have heard is that there is a fairly direct correlation between speed and accident rates.
So wait, they ban apps that warn of illegal checkpoints?
If you die from either driving drunk or being hit by a drunk driver, none of those damn "rights" are of worth to anyone. You libertarians/anarchists think that "freedom" is equal to a lack of laws but the truth is that anarchy is the opposite of freedom. Why? Because anarchy swiftly degenerates into fiefdoms run by warlords and that means that they only people who feel "free" are the warlords. If you are in constant fear then you are too paralyzed to ever exercise your freedoms that you might think you still have. Freedom is never "free". It must be bought with blood and maintained with some sense of order for the common good. Absolute "freedom" via anarchy is a myth.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
In New Jersey, it is mandatory to publish the location of DUI checkpoints 72 or 48 hours in advance... and they (PD) do just that.
I'm glad Apple freed us from corporate shackles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2225174&cid=36390518
Is afraid of the police state too.
U.S. Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) are named as senders in the letter
Oh, of course.