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

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

#71

Post by baddox »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #36
jerrya wrote: 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.

Sounds really cool, but I'm not sure what problem it actually solves. Typical ATM robbery today probably ends with the cash coming out of the machine and the robber running away, hopefully without injuring or killing their victim. Victim calls police, they take a report, get the video from the ATM cam, bank refunds the stolen cash, done. In the scenario that you're proposing, the only advantage is that police are cal…

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.

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

#72

Post by sandGorgon »

HTC Sense has something called modes - which allow you to put your phone in profiles that switch data off, or the keyboard off, etc. They recently acquired Inquisitive Minds for a "kids mode" (http://www.androidguys.com/2011/10/18/htc-acquires-inquisiti...) which is pretty much guest mode.

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

#73

Post by JohnQPasserby »

baddox wrote: post #70
pavel_lishin wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Rubber hose cryptography isn't a valid response to plausible deniability, because it applies equally to a volume that's encrypted normally (i.e. the cops just see junk data). At least you have a chance to throw them off with your fake unlock. Anyway, if it comes down to torture, you're screwed no matter what (unless you're trained to withstand torture); plausible deniability is more for "civilized" courts because the…

actually that is how the courts see it

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

#74

Post by ryanwaggoner »

elliottcarlson wrote: post #58
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds really cool, but I'm not sure what problem it actually solves. Typical ATM robbery today probably ends with the cash coming out of the machine and the robber running away, hopefully without injuring or killing their victim. Victim calls police, they take a report, get the video from the ATM cam, bank refunds the stolen cash, done. In the scenario that you're proposing, the only advantage is that police are cal…

"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 instances where the theft at the ATM is just the start of other crimes towards the victim.

True. So maybe the advantage here is that the police are alerted to the fact that a crime is taking place. But let's say the victim is kidnapped or something at this point. Are the police going to be able to do anything? They'll show up 5-15 mins after the emergency call and find an empty parking lot. What then?

I guess this might be helpful for situations in which the robber takes the money but then hangs around the ATM to beat or rape the victim. But I doubt this is terribly common. And as soon as it becomes commonplace for people to have duress codes, they'll start taking the victim elsewhere instead of staying near the ATM. Or they'll just kick the shit out of the victim to impress upon them the foolishness of using such a code.

Actually, that's an interesting thought experiment. You're held up at gunpoint (or knifepoint) at an ATM. You have a duress code (that you remember). The criminal knows these are common and threatens you not to use it. Do you?

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

#75

Post by ryanwaggoner »

baddox wrote: post #71
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds really cool, but I'm not sure what problem it actually solves. Typical ATM robbery today probably ends with the cash coming out of the machine and the robber running away, hopefully without injuring or killing their victim. Victim calls police, they take a report, get the video from the ATM cam, bank refunds the stolen cash, done. In the scenario that you're proposing, the only advantage is that police are cal…

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.

Not sure the situation in other countries, but in the US you aren't liable for any money lost in an ATM robbery. So this would be helpful to the banks, but not the victim.

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

#76

Post by z2amiller »

zacharyvoase wrote: post #40

As far as I'm concerned the only 'Guest Mode' I need on my phone is the emergency call screen. I'm totally willing to be the 'weirdo' who won't let someone use his phone.

I was thinking of something related to this earlier today. One thing I'd really like from the emergency call screen is to allow me to tag several of my contacts as emergency contacts. That way if my phone is stolen, or I am hurt in an accident, the list of proper people to notify is very apparent.

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

#77

Post by evandena »

z2amiller wrote: post #76
zacharyvoase wrote: post #40

As far as I'm concerned the only 'Guest Mode' I need on my phone is the emergency call screen. I'm totally willing to be the 'weirdo' who won't let someone use his phone.

I was thinking of something related to this earlier today. One thing I'd really like from the emergency call screen is to allow me to tag several of my contacts as emergency contacts. That way if my phone is stolen, or I am hurt in an accident, the list of proper people to notify is very apparent.

Yeah, the old ICE contact.

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

#78

Post by DaveMebs »

dhughes wrote: post #68
walexander wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work for a tablet manufacturer, and I spoke to an Android product manager at I/O last year about this. According to him, this is a feature that pops up once in awhile, but they have a long list of stuff to do and this is just one of those things that always gets bumped out. From my perspective as a platform dev, I'd like to get into some of the technical problems with changing this, but I could end up breaking some…

There are two your account and the hidden root account ;)

I think the concerns are the interactions between user accounts. I don't think anyone is too worried about the hidden root account having access to your user account data.

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

#79

Post by nradov »

jerrya wrote: 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.

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.

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

#80

Post by ChrisCooper »

jerrya wrote: 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.

I think the double-PIN makes sense in the ATM case (because you don't want to alert the robber to your scheme), but in the phone case I think multiple PINs is far too complex.

Why not just have e.g. "swipe left to unlock to guest mode" or something similar? Then you can still have it be locked, but with the same old PIN; it will be far more attractive to users.

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