It's not that they'd be printing and pasting. It's that they would be printing it out on quality paper with a high end inkjet or color laser and getting it laminated. So a college student in New York could print out a drivers license from Montana and go to the local corner store for some beer. Most likely the clerk behind the counter at two in the morning has no idea what a Montana license is supposed to look like and whether or not Montana licenses are laminated. Sure there are books out that show what every license is supposed to look like, for bartenders and convenience stores, but how many of those books are out of date and how many are actually used?
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Apple Pulls App for Creating Fake Driver's Licenses Following U.S. Senator's Complaint
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It's not that they'd be printing and pasting. It's that they would be printing it out on quality paper with a high end inkjet or color laser and getting it laminated. So a college student in New York could print out a drivers license from Montana and go to the local corner store for some beer. Most likely the clerk behind the counter at two in the morning has no idea what a Montana license is supposed to look like and whether or not Montana licenses are laminated. Sure there are books out that show what every license is supposed to look like, for bartenders and convenience stores, but how many of those books are out of date and how many are actually used?
What are these fake licenses printed on, psychic paper? Why doesn't the user just wave their hand in front of the TSA agent's face and say: "these aren't the droids you're looking for"? If the TSA agents with the 3D p0&n scanners can't tell the difference between an iPhone and a driver's license, then get them out of the airports.
Even TSA guys have off days, for better or for worse.
One time I was travelling with a friend and boarding a flight together. The TSA guy waved my friend through first, and then when I opened the passport I was holding, I realized it wasn't mine -- we had accidentally switched them at some point. That means the TSA guy waved through a white man in his late 40's who was holding a passport belonging to an Asian guy in his 20's, and didn't even notice. I think he would have waved me through too; it was me that noticed the wrong passport photo and pointed it out.
It says *could* bypass TSA, not that anyone actually used this app to do so. The app has no place in the store though, illegal through and through.
You'd find that the easiest way to get anything funded or done in the government is to say that "a terrorist could (fill in the blank) so we need to (fill in the blank)."
You'd find that the easiest way to get anything funded or done in the government is to say that "a terrorist could (fill in the blank) so we need to (fill in the blank)."
Sure its illegal to make and use a fake id... but its not illegal to make a app like that... in the end its always the users choice if he will use the app for fun or for bad intentions!!! So yes theres noting illegal in this case!! Still i agree with you that its better off that the app has been pulled but theres a lot of similar apps that would do no harm but they were pulled anyway for the same reasons (some guy wrote a letter)
I mean thats just bull ****. As i sead the app store should be a little more opened... apple should focus on the 3 main reasons: the app does as advertised , doesn't crash, no malware... The content should not be judged !!
There is no such thing as using this app "for fun." Once you open it and fill in the blanks, you've broken the law - regardless of whether you use the ID or not.
Obsessive preemptive notices are quite the thing these days.
Well done, comrade. I salute your vigilance.
Fake physical IDs seem like a very USy thing. Elsewhere people are allowed to vote, drive, smoke, drink (more spirited stuff than beer and wine), die in wars and go to college at (about) the same age, and they have mandatory, secure, federal-issued identity cards.
Got it before it was pulled
Us Macrumors users should put together a large collections of pulled apps and make them available to download.
Good
Glad they pulled it. It's damned irresponsible for someone to create an app like that. There are already plenty of ways that little douches circumvent the law and this is just another way that should not be allowed. There is no valid reason to have an application like this in the wild.
Glad they pulled it. It's damned irresponsible for someone to create an app like that. There are already plenty of ways that little douches circumvent the law and this is just another way that should not be allowed. There is no valid reason to have an application like this in the wild.
Thing is they made it easy, easier than any other way.Phew, thank goodness they've now eliminated the only way anybody with a computer and scanner/printer would ever be able to do this.
You can obviously photoshop it and create one yourself, but it won't be that easy, and requires photoshop skills.
But I guess there's an app like that for mac/windows anyway, so no point to ban it from the iOS store.
Yep and one that is perhaps backed up by several laws. Even if they are rather silly ones. A detail that could be why the Senator got a response (because he mentioned the laws Apple could be breaking by having the app in the store) and this Coalition didn't.
While I agree that politicians of all stripes pull out "terrorism" to justify anything, I think your statement is an overreaction in this case.
I think it's clear that the Apple App store should not be selling a program that makes it easy to reproduce fake IDs even if 9/11 had never happened. Putting aside terrorism completely, you don't want kids making up fake IDs to get into bars or to drive. I realize that someone could also easily create a fake ID by scanning in the front and back of someone else's driver's license, but this makes it exceptionally easy.
A politician contacting Apple and saying, "this looks like a really bad idea that could be technically illegal" is a far cry from the government searching our bodies at airports, wanting to collect circulation records from libraries, monitoring our web activities, keeping the opposition from political rallies, etc.
And just because something may be technically legal, doesn't mean we should do it.
I think Apple made the right decision in this case. What positive purpose does the application serve? None that I can see. Even porn can sometimes have something positive about it (not that Apple permits that either.)
Or the security at a car rental place. And since there is a car rental place named "National", it clearly endangers National security.
"difficult to discern from one that's genuine"
Umm...in what states? Lots have a raised signature or multiple holographic pictures or additional photos or information available only under UV light. Iowa has both, in addition to some type of bar-type codes and other information on the back (one of which, I think, just encodes the birthday and other info from the front--some stores scan it).
You printer isn't going to do THAT, and anyone who accepts these is probably not the brightest bulb in the box. That being said, it's not unreasonable to pull the app--if it doesn't have malicious intent, making obviously fake ones for fun would have probably been the best option.
Umm...in what states? Lots have a raised signature or multiple holographic pictures or additional photos or information available only under UV light. Iowa has both, in addition to some type of bar-type codes and other information on the back (one of which, I think, just encodes the birthday and other info from the front--some stores scan it).
You printer isn't going to do THAT, and anyone who accepts these is probably not the brightest bulb in the box. That being said, it's not unreasonable to pull the app--if it doesn't have malicious intent, making obviously fake ones for fun would have probably been the best option.
In other news:
Someone at THREE-LETTER-AGENCY is quite unhappy about Senator Bob Casey's move to blow up their nice honeypot, which over the past two years had collected numerous mugshots, and location and contact data of potential "evildoers".
Or does anyone know which (fake?) company was behind the app, and what the purported business model was?
Someone at THREE-LETTER-AGENCY is quite unhappy about Senator Bob Casey's move to blow up their nice honeypot, which over the past two years had collected numerous mugshots, and location and contact data of potential "evildoers".Or does anyone know which (fake?) company was behind the app, and what the purported business model was?
It's Apple's app store. They can decide what goes in and what stays out. They built it, they maintain it, it's 100% in their control.
The iPhone is my device. I paid for it, I own it. I want the ability to install apps outside of the app store. It gives me the freedom to shop at Apple's app store or go crazy and install stuff outside of it. You know, similar to what you can do on your Mac (use Apple's app store or just download and install any app from any website if you want).
Pretty simple really. I can't believe there is so much negativity towards wanting a little bit more freedom.
At least the senator didn't pull the "unpatriotic" card.
But really, Apple, this app was allowed?
I thought the unpatriotic card was implied by the terrorist card?
Mandatory federal-issued ID cards are illegal in some US states. And they reduce overall security, not enhance it:
"...There are security benefits in having a variety of different ID documents. A single national ID is an exceedingly valuable document, and accordingly there's greater incentive to forge it. There is more security in alert guards paying attention to subtle social cues than bored minimum-wage guards blindly checking IDs. That's why, when someone asks me to rate the security of a national ID card on a scale of one to 10, I can't give an answer. It doesn't even belong on a scale."
(http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0404.html#1) Bruce Schneier, Crypto-Gram Newsletter 15 April 2004
This makes sense because...you can only create fake license on iPhones.
And the templates are available nowhere else.
And the templates are available nowhere else.
No kidding, my Ontario license is so full of security features, it looks like I've got a holographic hatchmark beard. Have you seen the plastic money we'll be getting soon? http://www.bankofcanada.ca/banknotes/