In my (European) country now we can have a digital copy of the driving license on the phone. It specifically says that it’s valid to be presented to law enforcement officers during a check.
I saw amazed in the beginning. They went from limited beta testing to full scale nationwide launch in just two months. Unbelievable. And I even thought “wow this is so convenient I won’t need to take the wallet with me anymore”. I installed the government app and signed up with my government id and I got my digital driving license.
Then yesterday I got stopped by a random roadblock check and police asked me my id card. I was eager to immediately try the new app and show them the digital version, but then because music was playing via Bluetooth and I didn’t want to pause it, i just gave the real one.
They took it and went back to their patrol for a full five minutes while they were doing background checks on me.
That means if I used the digital version, they would had unlimited access to all my digital life. Photos, emails, chats, from decades ago.
What are you are going to do, you expect that they just scan the qr code on the window, but they take the phone from your hand. Are you going to complain raising doubts? Or even say “wait I pin the app with a lock so you can’t see the content?”
“I have nothing to hide” but surely when searching for some keywords something is going to pop-up. Maybe you did some ironic statement and now they want to know more about that.
And this is a godsend for the secret services. They no longer need to buy zero day exploits for infecting their targets, they can just cosplay as a patrol and have the victim hand the unlocked phone, for easy malware installation
Immediately uninstalled the government app, went back to traditional documents.
For the most surface level concerns like risking them accessing any app on your phone, you can enable app lock on those that support it. Usually the most sensitive do: WhatsApp, Signal, banking apps and others.
If they don’t, take advantage of the private space which locks apps until you unlock, and you can relock whenever you want
I’m thinking of going stoic and dropping anything Android, but this would require setting up an emulator working good enough for WhatsApp, Google Authenticator, MS Authenticator and probably something else.
I’ve always just shown a scan of my ID on my phone. It’s just a picture?
and they accept that as a valid id? I mean in a store ok, but a public official? It’s incredibly easy to make a fake screenshot
the digital version of id cards are glorified qr codes: they scan it and their device downloads from the government servers the official version. Or, for offline usage: the qr code contains all the data, signed with their key, they check if the signature is valid
If you use an android phone, just create a separate account on your phone just with the apps you want the police to see. No email, photos, social media, or anything. This way you can switch to the restricted user before giving the cop your phone.
What’s the possibility and legality of something like getting implemented in the US?
drivers licensees are by state and my only federal id is my ss card which doesnt have my picture or any current information. i dont think it would work as well here since you would need 50 different apps
