Are you underage and in need of a drink? There used to be an app for that, but not anymore. Apple has pulled an app that created fake driver’s licenses after a U.S. Senator from New Jersey complained it “poses a threat to public safety and national security.” No more 19-year-old Al Qaeda members trying to sneak in on happy hour, I guess.
The free License app by DriversEd.com let iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users insert a digital photo and personal data into a state’s driving license template. The result could be printed and laminated, offering even greater challenges for already harried bartenders.
However, U.S. Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania focused on the potential for criminals to “create a new identity, steal someone else’s identity” as well as the underage purchase of alcohol or cigarettes. The fast action by Apple is a lesson to groups that if they want the Cupertino, Calif. company to move, get the feds on your side.
It took Casey’s letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook just days to do what the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License could not accomplish in months. In April, the group sent a letter to Scott Forstall, Senior Vice-President for Apple’s iOS Software division. Apple never responded.
This isn’t the first time the U.S. Congress has gotten involved in how the App Store operates. Earlier this year, four U.S. senators asked Apple, Google and RIM to toss apps which alerted drivers to police roadside sobriety checkpoints. Apple eventually revised its App Store guidelines to exclude DUI checkpoint location information, except when released by law enforcement.
So, will the absence of this fake driver’s license app reduce the number of underage drinkers using false IDs? Of course not, we were using fake IDs to get into bars even before the personal computer existed. Will the number of terrorists using fake IDs be reduced? Not in the least. Terrorists know to buy a fake social security card or U.S. passport, which can then get you the real deal – not something produced by an iPhone app.
What this does illustrate is how interwoven apps and society have become. Like television and movies, apps are becoming major entertainment and are now on the radar of regulators. The response to Casey also suggests Apple is acutely aware how a quick response to a member of the U.S. Congress could win brownie points later on when it wants an acquisition or a piece of legislation approved by Washington.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
6 responses to “Apple Yanks Fake Driver’s License App After U.S. Senator Complains”
I don’t think that Apple cares about the real problem, they’re just afraid of bad press.
Normally, I’m not a fan of letting others decide what is or isn’t appropriate; however, in this case, pulling the app seems to be the most responsible thing to do. As an educator who has been to too many hospital rooms to see students who have been injured, or funerals for young people who have died because they, or someone else was drinking and driving, I think anything that helps keep fake IDs out of the hands of minors is a good thing.
Casey might as well be from New Jersey 8^P
Not sure drink driving is the exclusive preserve of the underage. They don’t have a monopoly on stupidity…
Downloaded the app. It does not do what the Senator accuses it of doing. A jokey app that makes low resolution images of drivers licenses that don’t look like actual driver’s licenses and have cheesy logos plastered on them is not “a threat to public safety and national security.”
Downloaded and used this app. You would have to be already drunk to confuse any ID produced by the cartoonish blatantly spoofed Drivers License App LOL