Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

security.googleblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 79 posts

Re: Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

#51

Post by toomuchtodo »

hansjorg wrote: post #36
rootsudo wrote: post #12

This is horrible, it should remain a card. Why should a cell phone, or any technological device now be required for participation in society or to validate yourself to any government official? At that point, where do you draw the line of privacy? You're carrying with you an object that you can't trust 100% and can work against you anytime. This is truly chilling dystopian type stuff. Soon a cell phone will be require…

The techno-fetishists are taking over. The kind of people whose reaction to dystopian sci-fi is, "I want those cool gadgets".

A tool is not dystopian, only its usage. This is no more dystopian than Apple Pay, as long as it isn’t mandated and data access and storage is appropriately regulated.

Re: Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

#52

Post by kelnos »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #7

This is a very US-centric approach to set a standard for having your ID on your phone. Why not calling it simply Mobile ID and having the driver license as one of the data records or features? That would be more natural design.

Yeah, I did think it was kinda weird (even as an American) that this is presented as a digital driver's license and not just a digital ID.

It's possible that they are afraid the latter will raise more "big brother" type concerns with people in the US, so they're focusing on the DL part of it.

I know people who don't have a DL, and instead have a (nearly identical looking, also obtained from the same government agency that handles DLs) state ID, and it would be silly if this new "mDL" didn't also support their IDs.

Re: Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

#53

Post by kelnos »

notRobot wrote: post #26

No. Nope. No. No. No. There's nothing wrong with plastic card drivers' licenses. Don't fuck up and complicate a system that already works perfectly. I don't want my identity in society controlled by a fucking Google app. I don't know when they'll lock me out. I don't know if I'll always have a working, charged smartphone on me. I don't see a single advantage to this approach.

Perfectly? Hardly. Why does a random bar or liquor store get to scan the barcode on my license and get my name, address, and phone number that they can sell to a third party?

Not saying this is the solution, but the current system isn't that great.

Re: Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

#54

Post by 1123581321 »

olyjohn wrote: post #35
1123581321 wrote: post #11

Would there be any way for similar protections to come to digital auto insurance cards?

Why would you need that? Insurance cards have zero security on them anyways. There's no standard format for paper cards as is is. All I have ever had is a piece of paper that I ran off on my printer, and it says "EVIDENCE OF INSURANCE" in Times New Roman and lists off a bunch of crap that the police can't verify. Some states, having a card is pointless, because if you lose your policy, the state finds out and already…

I would like the same ability to transmit the information with the phone in lockdown, in a way that the police would understand due to the system being the same.

It was not a comment about whether cards are standard. I do need to be able to present a policy number the police look up in my state.

Re: Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

#55

Post by dgrin91 »

rootsudo wrote: post #12

This is horrible, it should remain a card. Why should a cell phone, or any technological device now be required for participation in society or to validate yourself to any government official? At that point, where do you draw the line of privacy? You're carrying with you an object that you can't trust 100% and can work against you anytime. This is truly chilling dystopian type stuff. Soon a cell phone will be require…

I dont think this standard makes a phone a requirement. It just provides a new option.

Is having a computer a requirement to be part of modern society? It certainly helps, and the vast majority of people use them for the convivence, but its not required.

Re: Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

#56

Post by casefields »

kelnos wrote: post #47
ianferrel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A pretty common way to get a fake id is to borrow a real id from someone else. Bouncers ask you how old you are or what your house number is as a check on that. That seems like a plausibly useful feature, or are there other ways to tell that the virtual id matches the real person holding the phone?

Is this common, though? In my 18 years of legally entering bars, that has literally never happened to me, even when I was in my early 20s.

Early 2000s they used to. Out here in LA, and in Vegas too. Those are the only places I've gone out with any regularity. Nowadays it's seems they just trust the scanner.

Re: Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

#57

Post by [deleted] »

hansjorg wrote: post #36
rootsudo wrote: post #12

This is horrible, it should remain a card. Why should a cell phone, or any technological device now be required for participation in society or to validate yourself to any government official? At that point, where do you draw the line of privacy? You're carrying with you an object that you can't trust 100% and can work against you anytime. This is truly chilling dystopian type stuff. Soon a cell phone will be require…

The techno-fetishists are taking over. The kind of people whose reaction to dystopian sci-fi is, "I want those cool gadgets".

[deleted]

Re: Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

#58

Post by rmrfstar »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #25
rootsudo wrote: post #12

This is horrible, it should remain a card. Why should a cell phone, or any technological device now be required for participation in society or to validate yourself to any government official? At that point, where do you draw the line of privacy? You're carrying with you an object that you can't trust 100% and can work against you anytime. This is truly chilling dystopian type stuff. Soon a cell phone will be require…

But why? Why do people have to carry a wallet everywhere, unless they want to? I have my payment cards on my watch. Pre-pandemic, my gym membership card was on my watch. If I had my ID on my watch as well, I don't ever have to worry about a wallet being stolen because I wouldn't carry one. Sure, people can steal your watch at gunpoint- but it can be remotely disabled (even if you were forced to give your passcode und…

What if you had a serious business dispute with Apple or Google, and were (justifiably) uncomfortable walking around with a mobile bug running software of their choosing? [1]

For most people on this site, this kind of threat is far more likely than the mugging you described.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/silicon-v...

Re: Privacy-preserving features in the Mobile Driving License

#60

Post by rootsudo »

as_keyof_typeof wrote: post #27
rootsudo wrote: post #12

This is horrible, it should remain a card. Why should a cell phone, or any technological device now be required for participation in society or to validate yourself to any government official? At that point, where do you draw the line of privacy? You're carrying with you an object that you can't trust 100% and can work against you anytime. This is truly chilling dystopian type stuff. Soon a cell phone will be require…

Yes, I think so too. I am professionally a SWE but more and more I feel like a Luddite, and more and more distant from the predominant HN demographic.

Same, more and more I feel pariah because I don't praise big tech, I don't buy the new product and I don't talk about new features.

Maybe that's just the marketing working on 11 and I'm to tuned in, or maybe everyone is into it and I'm the one that doesn't care.

Post reply on HN