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In Iowa, a Phone App Could Serve As Driver's License
New submitter dubner writes Simply hand the law enforcement officer your mobile phone. That's what you can do in Iowa rather than "digging through clutter in your glove compartment for an insurance card." And soon your driver's license will be available on your phone too, according to a story in the (Des Moines Register). Iowans will soon be able to use a mobile app on their smartphones as their official driver's license issued by the Iowa Department of Transportation. Some marvelous quotes in TFA: "The new app should be highly secure ... People will use a pin number for verification." And "Branstad (Iowa governor)... noted that even Iowa children are now working on digital development projects." A raft of excuses ("battery's dead") and security problems come to mind; how would you implement such a system?
If you can access the data with a PIN wirelessly, why does the "owner" of the license even need direct access to it? At that point it's the issuing authority's responsibility to be able to access it using the owner's given PIN.
To condense the argument down, "why do you even need a phone app? why can't you just give your last name and PIN to the officer?" All the phone app is doing here is validating that you know the PIN.
moox. for a new generation.
What part of get off my lawn was ambiguous? It says "I'm old, now fuck off".
Except as you get older you stop fetishizing technology, and decide that "no, I really don't care about this shiny bauble, because Matlock is going to be on soon, and I need to find my sweater".
I still own and use a lot of technology, some of which was invented after the steam-powered interwebs became unfashionable.
I've seen and used technology long enough to know that today's really shiny new toy is tomorrow's discarded detritus which didn't really improve my life any. Which means I've got the perspective to go straight to "I fail to see how this actually benefits me".
I'd say around 85-90% of all apps I've installed on my tablet become something I don't use fairly quickly and get uninstalled. (Yes, I know what they are and how to use one.)
I make my living working with technology, but I'm not completely beholden to it, and don't use it just simply because it exists. It needs to add value to my life, or it's just a nuisance and a gimmick.
And, quite frankly, having my drivers license as an app on a phone? Not so much with the adding of value, and really high on the "annoying and eroding my privacy" front.
Because, when you get old enough, terrorizing the youngsters becomes a hobby unto itself ... and because half of the wet behind the ears punks around here don't remember enough technology to know a damned thing about it, and are clueless enough to believe there's always been a fucking app for that.
But, after 30+ years of playing with, or working with technology ... I don't always think "hot damn, I need one of those". I think "yeah, we had something kinda like that 20+ years ago, and it was pointless then, too".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.