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Apple's Secret Plan To Join iPhones With Airport Security
Hugh Pickens writes "Currently — as most of us know — TSA agents briefly examine government ID and boarding passes as each passenger presents their documents at a checkpoint at the end of a security line. Thom Patterson writes at CNN that under a 2008 Apple patent application that was approved in July and filed under the working title "iTravel," a traveler's phone would automatically send electronic identification to a TSA agent as soon as the traveler got in line and as each traveler waits in line. TSA agents would examine the electronic ID at an electronic viewing station. Next, at the X-ray stations, a traveler's phone would confirm to security agents that the traveler's ID had already been checked. Apple's patent calls for the placement of special kiosks (PDF) around the airport which will automatically exchange data with your phone via a close range wireless technology called near field communication (NFC). Throughout the process, the phone photo could be displayed on a screen for comparison with the traveler. Facial recognition software could be included in the process. Several experts say a key question that must be answered is: How would you prove that the phone is yours? To get around this problem, future phones or electronic ID may require some form of biometric security function including photo, fingerprint and photo retinal scan comparisons. Of course, there is still a ways to go. If consumers, airlines, airports and the TSA don't embrace the NFC kiosks, experts say it's unlikely Apple's vision would become reality. 'First you would have to sell industry on Apple's idea. Then you'd have to sell it to travel consumers,' says Neil Hughes of Apple Insider. 'It's a chicken-and-egg problem.'"
The irony is that the "1984" theme became one of the most successful ad campaign for Apple back then ...
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
which hasn't happened yet.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I've attended a couple of Tech conferences where the presenters seem to assume that
...
- everyone is, or will be on Facebook
- everyone has, or will have an Apple device (iphone or ipad)
All rather short-sighted. In the past we've seen new ideas come along and be embraced by society and then abandoned. Skateboard parks, CB radios, kung fu
Not to say that Apple doesn't have a large customer base now - but it won't always. Is it really that worthwhile to introduce special handling for people with a special type of device?
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
We have RFID tags in our passports already, so they are already moving us towards electronic IDs. It's a foregone conclusion that the type of ID done for international flights will eventually crop up in domestic travel as well, for better or worse.
Consumers won't fight phone ID provided there is some added convenience that comes with it. Perhaps if we didn't have to remove shoes, for example (even though that security theatre seems unrelated to digital identification).
In all likelihood, it would be a service that would be available *IF YOU WANT IT*
Indeed. To give a more recent example (than SSN given by someone else), consider the electronic toll-booths.
First, it was a discount pilot program for those who want it
Then it was a normal-price convenience
Then the cash-booths dwindled to one or two per road
And I have already ran into some booths in Illinois with "no human operator present". And ran into something like that in Canada (no cash payment option, apparently, but they can charge and fine you later with plate recognition)
It doesn't even take that long to go from "optional convenience" to "optional if you like to suffer and pay extra"