Live data from Hacker News

Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

techcrunch.com

141–150 of 208 posts

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#141
post #136
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the fake PIN would only show a preset of money in the account (and still call the cops)? If the robber didn't know the victim, they might buy it.

I think that's the far more sensible option. Sure, they might get more violent and say 'use the real pin', but honestly, how are they going to know that there isn't only 67.87 in the bank?

Eh, I just have two bank accounts and only keep a few hundred in the one I use for debit card payments/withdrawals. If I need more, my smartphone app is right there.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the only advantage is that police are called about 30 seconds sooner" Unless the thief takes off with the victims phone as well. Additionally there are sadly instances where the theft at the ATM is just the start of other crimes towards the victim.

Unless the thief takes off with the victims phone as well. I was thinking of the best case scenario. So the robber takes the phone as well, and the person calls it in 15 minutes later when they get to a phone. When the average police response time is about ten minutes, the difference between a call being placed 30 seconds after the robbery and 15 minutes after is pretty much nil. Additionally there are sadly instance…

Do you?

Yup!

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#143
Smartphones seem to have mostly sacrificed some of their security for convenience.

Take Windows for example, sure you can setup multiple user accounts with different levels of privilege , access to website and apps etc but how many people outside of a corporate or academic setting actually use this?

Whenever I borrow someones laptop they just use their own login, sometimes I find porn in their Internet history but at the end of the day who cares?

Perhaps this is more of a problem for people with kids who might want to use the internet themselves but when their child uses it they don't want them to have access to certain sites or see that their parent has accessed certain sites.

One issue I have with android is that when I clear the history in the browser and delete all cookie etc etc.

If I hit the back button it still goes back to whatever I visited last , also if I goto google and tap the search bar all my previous searches come up. It's not really very privacy friendly.

Hopefully this problem will pass once everyone has a smartphone so they don't need to borrow someone elses.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless the thief takes off with the victims phone as well. I was thinking of the best case scenario. So the robber takes the phone as well, and the person calls it in 15 minutes later when they get to a phone. When the average police response time is about ten minutes, the difference between a call being placed 30 seconds after the robbery and 15 minutes after is pretty much nil. Additionally there are sadly instance…

You do because for the criminal there is no way to know if you used a duress code or not.So if you cant really get into a better position in the eyes of the criminal by not using it,you might as well use it and get cops to know you are in trouble. Not to mention that cops will potentially have a live video feed of the crime scene as the crime is being committed!

If they're part of a gang with a mole in the police they'll know - and who are you to say they aren't?

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of computer do you have that doesn't have a guest mode? Windows, Mac/UNIX and Linux have all been multi-user either from the beginning or for decades.

Yeah, but then I have to have a "guest" log-in. My computers are always on, so people never feel bad about asking to use them, and I feel it's unnecessary and unsmooth to log out. Since I've already been perfectly demanding|whining about a feature I'd like to have, what I _really_ want is to just click a program that boots up a vm with the same OS, but only the browser ready to go with a fresh lack of cookies, histor…

How about using Opera kiosk mode - it appears to meet your requested features.

Also FastUserSwitching doesnt require logout IIRC.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#146
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the far more sensible option. Sure, they might get more violent and say 'use the real pin', but honestly, how are they going to know that there isn't only 67.87 in the bank?

Eh, I just have two bank accounts and only keep a few hundred in the one I use for debit card payments/withdrawals. If I need more, my smartphone app is right there.

Ah... this is a good benefit to having multiple accounts. I am always confused by those with only one bank account. My current account never goes above 2K, mostly sitting at around a few hundred. This gives me a perpetual feeling of not having very much money, so I don't spend too much.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#147
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Guest account too, but mainly other user accounts. Not for phones but for tablets, these tend to get shared more - there's a way to have multiple user accounts on iPad but this requires jailbreaking, something I'm not too fond of. It'd be nice that each family member can use their own instances of mail and safari etc...

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#148
post #138
post #16

Somewhat related: I've long wondered why ATM cards don't have something similar. 1234 is my regular PIN. 1235 is my help I'm being robbed PIN -- it dispenses the cash, calls the cops, and tags the video.

This is known as a "Duress Code" and it's sometimes found in alarm systems as a code which will disarm the alarm and still call the police. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duress_code

cool. someone here is publishing an idea, and there is wikipedia page for it. ironic. :)

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#149
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a nice idea but wouldn't work in practice. If the "help" PIN is always 1 higher then there would be too many false alarms due to pressing the wrong button. Or if the "help" PIN is totally different then victims will forget under stress.

Also, robbers would know there is such thing as a "help" pin, therefore rendering it useless. It's not a good idea in practice.

It wouldn't render it useless if the behaviour of the machine was identical (other that sending a silent alert) and still dispensed the cash.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#150
post #3

The "two PINs" idea would also be great for when a police officer pulls you over and asks you to hand over and unlock your phone. With the proper encryption you could even have plausible deniability.

Haven't people suggested this with regards to TrueCrypt's hidden volumes, with "rubber-hose cryptography" being the most common answer, and "yeah, well, prove that this is your REAL phone unlock code" being the second most common.

I think you mean rubber-hose cryptanalysis.

I am amused by the idea of rubber-hose cryptography though - beating on the data until it encrypts itself!

Post reply on HN