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Comment by mrfusion | Hacker News Reader

Is it ok that this scares me? What if you’re accused of spreading misinformation and Apple pulls your license?

You’d still have your physical ID. It would be reasonable for there to be statute that prohibits Apple from revoking your digital ID, as the state retains the property rights of the ID, not Apple.

(beta tester in my state of this product)

> You’d still have your physical ID.

For now. In the future I could see a cost saving measure to be all digital.

> It would be reasonable for there to be statute that prohibits Apple from revoking your digital ID

There are a lot of reasonable statutes that should exist.

I think the idea that an id would be digital only but then you're beholden to whomever software runs it would be frowned upon by the courts pretty fast.

Lots of 'software gone bad and dorked up someone's life' kinda situations out there but when it comes to IDs and simple interactions like presenting one the courts are pretty generally pretty reasonable.

I would expect some physical ID to continue for a long time.

You’ve got a lot of faith in the courts. What if our government becomes more dysfunctional? What if court appointments become super partisan and the other tribe is appointing them?

>What if our government becomes more dysfunctional?

You tell me.

What are you proposing at that point? A physical ID is going to save you from anarchy?

IMO physical is safer than digital but I could be wrong.

I would guess that a physical ID makes the states and the economy a lot of money. It cost almost $40 to renew a license here in Alabama and it can be done in less than 15 minutes. It is a token that allows third parties to verify the ID of someone with pretty good accuracy.

What?

Apple doesn't control whether or not you have a Driver's License. This makes zero sense.

I think his point is that apple can revoke access to your digital license.

How? That’s like saying Apple can cancel your digital credit cards.

Apple has no say in invalidating your license.

So far as I know, Apple can change arbitrary bits in the memory and file system of any online device they make. So, they can turn it off, change files, change the functioning of processes and apps, including removing any particular app. They can cause an iPhone to not display an image of or transmit the details of a drivers license, even if one is stored in the device, despite the effort of the user.

But the status of being licensed to drive is kept in one or several databases controlled by one or many states or agencies. Similarly, the status of having a credit card is kept in a database controlled by at least one credit card company. Licenses and payment accounts can be verified for everyday use with less than 100bits even without a physical or digital representation of the card face available.

If Apple can stop a device from transmitting or displaying license details, then I guess you'll... need either a physical copy or the license number.

This is beyond ludicrous.

Your drivers license does not live with Apple nor does Apple control whether or not you have one.

There is a distinction between

- having a valid drivers license document during a police encounter

- having a malicious device making (maybe) license related claims on your behalf during a police encounter

edit: More specifically, and more to your point, there is a distinction between being licensed and being able to produce proof of licensing.

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