Thursday, June 13, 2019

New iPhone app records your traffic stop with the police

This is pretty interesting:
Once the shortcut is installed and configured, you just have to say, for example, "Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over." Then the program pauses music you may be playing, turns down the brightness on the iPhone, and turns on "do not disturb" mode.

It also sends a quick text to a predetermined contact to tell them you've been pulled over, and it starts recording using the iPhone's front-facing camera. Once you've stopped recording, it can text or email the video to a different predetermined contact and save it to Dropbox.
There is a ton of good information at that link, and I encourage everyone to click through to read it.  I am not a lawyer, so you should bone up on what the recording laws are in your State (some require consent of both parties, although that may or may not apply to Police in a public space).

Oh, and one last thing: do not ever ever ever use your fingerprint (or Face ID) to unlock your phone.  The Police cannot force you to give them your PIN, but they sure can swipe your finger or hold the phone up to see your face.

2 comments:

STxAR said...

So, what are the steps to use your finger print as the trigger to wipe the phone?? I always thought that would be perfect...

Borepatch said...

STxAR, I believe that repeated failed PIN entry on a locked iPhone will wipe it, but don't think that the same applies to fingerprint swipe.

But that really won't happen in this situation, as the police will take your finger and swipe it. They can't make you give them your PIN