Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> An SOS button app? This is a niche usecase.

Not at all. In fact, more and more emergency services providers (i.e. the callcenters where 911 gets you) get your location automatically when you call them. I'm not entirely sure though if they only geolocate by cellphone tower, or if the handset also sends location data along with the emergency call. I vaguely remember hearing about this being "supported by all modern phones" or something, so it might be the second. In this case, you absolutely don't want faked location data because it could cost lives.



The mechanisms supporting those features are mandated by law and couldn’t legally be subject to user-selected permissions.

Those mechanisms are not running as untrusted applications on the OS anyway, I believe most/all of them are implemented in radio firmware.


That's not an app, and it would be trivial to hardcode a device to send its true GPS location when an emergency number is dialled. Your phone already knows the distinction between emergency numbers and normal ones.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: