This currently may only be for a TSA usecase but this area of using a phone to show ID starts to get very murky very quickly
My insurance company has an app that will display my proof of insurance - just hand your phone to the police officer at the stop.
The trouble is you are legally surrendering the possession of your unlocked phone to a police officer who can then search through it. I asked a lawyer friend about this and he said the law doesn't allow you to granularly declare the terms under which you surrender your property (ie you can't say "don't look at anything else officer, just keep that app window open").
It's the same with finger prints as biometric - no one considered that you can plead the 5th when asked for a pin code but you can't decline to have your fingerprints taken (including on your own phone sensor). I'm assuming face recognition is same.
Back to this Apple Wallet announcement, TSA scanning is a very restrictive usecase that feels like just a wedge otherwise it's pretty low value.
But then why would anyone want to hand over their phone to the police (or another government agency) so they can take the phone with the ID on it back to their cruiser to write up your ticket. Of course they are going to have a quick search through your phone. That's not paranoia, that's good police work on their part.
Adding your government ID to Apple Wallet just seems like something that sounds technically cool but not properly thought out OR will only have very limited usecases.
There's an iOS feature called Guided Access[1], which allows you to hand over your phone in a limited-access state (locked to the current app, optionally with areas of the screen disabled for input - or whole input classes like touch/keyboard/motion/volume control disabled). You can also apply a time limit, after which time the phone requires you to authenticate (you can even prohibit Face ID to exit guided access, requiring a PIN instead).
Once enabled and in an app, you just triple-click the side button to start
It's not designed for fully-untrusted users, of course - my understanding is that no in-memory key storage is invalidated. It's useful for handing a phone to friends and relatives to browse some photos with limited access to the rest of your files, and without notifications appearing
Too bad that apps cannot access integrated Guided Access APIs. It's a little clunky for most people to remember to use this setting for sharing something like an ID.
> It's the same with finger prints as biometric - no one considered that you can plead the 5th when asked for a pin code but you can't decline to have your fingerprints taken (including on your own phone sensor). I'm assuming face recognition is same.
Always worth mentioning that you can hold power and either volume button for 3 seconds on an iPhone to disable biometrics until the next unlock. It brings up the power off/SOS controls, but dismissing those will require a passcode to unlock.
Good to know as it's fairly easy to do in a pocket or when under duress.
You still need to Face/Touch ID for Wallet, as you already do.
It won’t unlock your device as well, is their point. Just like Wallet currently operates.
> Biometric authentication using Face ID and Touch ID ensures that only the person who added the ID to the device can view or present their ID or license in Wallet.
That's fair point which I both missed and not personally familiar with as I'm an Android user (Android's equivalent of Apple Wallet does require you to unlock your phone).
I still worry about relying on my phone to hold my ID and then surrendering my phone when it's reasonable for the other party (presumably a government entity) to want to look at it in more detail or take the ID away for a period of time (eg during a traffic stop they will take your ID to run you through the computer and write your ticket up)
I also worry functionality like this leads to changes in general expectations which leads to more implementation that may not be as carefully executed
> Android's equivalent of Apple Wallet does require you to unlock your phone
There is no single equivalent, you are free to choose yours. PassAndroid is quite happy to show a pass on a locked phone, although you have to start the app first, but it's the best you can do in Android.
With Face ID, there's also the risk that a malicious viewer who is holding your phone could point it at you and get it fully unlocked before you are able to react. A cop who is standing at the window of your car would absolutely be close enough to do that. The only way this would be safe is if it engaged the emergency mode which requires the PIN/password to fully unlock.
I have children who like to play "unlock the phone" games, and we have tested quite a bit.
In my experience the cone is rather larger. Holding the phone and looking at the forearm or below it - which is easily 40 degrees off - will still unlock.
Not only that but you are legally permitted to withdraw your consent to search at any time. Just merely handing your phone to an officer unlocked does not permit a limitless search and seizure.
However if during that time the officer sees material that constitutes probable cause for a search, they can seize the phone without your ability to withdraw consent.
As mentioned in my previous comment, a lawyer told me you can't arbitrarily withdraw your consent in that way you are describing.
The police officer may also have taken your phone back to their car to use the ID details to write up the ticket so you can't easily ask form the phone back at that point.
However it'll very likely require first unlock which puts the phone in a very vulnerable state (storing unencrypted data, or at least the keys in memory).
It is way easier for law enforcement to get into phones after first unlock than it is from a powered down phone.
Before First Unlock (BFU) is a term used to describe the state of your phone after it has booted and been unlocked at least once. Even if locked again, the phone is still in a less secured state until it has been shut down again.
The linked to quote does not describe it's ability to function before first unlock. Many phone functions are disabled in the BFU state.
And one day these bugs will be worked out and it'll be commonplace.
We do a great job of pointing out the things people will stub their toes on, technologically, and then fail to take advantage of the improvements when they become commonplace.
Sure, using my phone as my identity, medical record, car key, and ATM has potential flaws...but then they're mostly worked out (or end up being not an issue) and...hey, it's a pretty neat idea.
(that just happens to lock you into a walled garden, leasing the hardware, for the rest of your life.)
I’ve seen the non-tech version of this first hand. A wallet was handed to a police officer at a traffic stop to show the ID in the clear plastic window. The cop then rifled through the rest of the wallet and found a second fake ID.
Imagine a cop taking your unlocked phone back to his car to “run your license”.
My insurance company has an app that will display my proof of insurance - just hand your phone to the police officer at the stop.
The trouble is you are legally surrendering the possession of your unlocked phone to a police officer who can then search through it. I asked a lawyer friend about this and he said the law doesn't allow you to granularly declare the terms under which you surrender your property (ie you can't say "don't look at anything else officer, just keep that app window open").
It's the same with finger prints as biometric - no one considered that you can plead the 5th when asked for a pin code but you can't decline to have your fingerprints taken (including on your own phone sensor). I'm assuming face recognition is same.
Back to this Apple Wallet announcement, TSA scanning is a very restrictive usecase that feels like just a wedge otherwise it's pretty low value.
But then why would anyone want to hand over their phone to the police (or another government agency) so they can take the phone with the ID on it back to their cruiser to write up your ticket. Of course they are going to have a quick search through your phone. That's not paranoia, that's good police work on their part.
Adding your government ID to Apple Wallet just seems like something that sounds technically cool but not properly thought out OR will only have very limited usecases.