New ‘Textalyzer’ Could Alert Police If Your Cellphone Use Is the Cause of a Car Accident

While Apple continues to stand firm by its sentiments of fighting for user privacy and data encryption on the company’s iPhone — an argument that’s been fueled in the wake of the recent, successful hacking into San Bernardino, California, terror suspect Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5c.

It appears that the company responsible for the hack might be making its way into the iPhone realm, even more, by creating a protocol by which to aid authorities in determining if a person was using their smartphone when they shouldn’t have been. The Israeli-based tech-firm, Cellebrite, which is now well known as the company responsible for successfully breaking into the iPhone 5c bringing to Farook, is allegedly working to develop a quote, unquote, “textalyzer” instrument.

Think of it this way: we’ve all heard of the breathalyzer once or twice before, right? Police officers use this tool to determine whether or not a person has recently been drinking during traffic stops. In essence, Cellebrite’s “textalyzer” will work in the same fashion — by enabling authorities to test a users smartphone, right there on the spot, insofar as to whether or not they were using their phone prior to being involved in a motor vehicle accident.

The new, software-based protocol is initially expected to launch in New York, where, pending some legislation that’s currently making its way through the state senate, authorities will be able to determine — without requiring a warrant — if a distracted driver was using their smartphone at the precise moment in time the accident occurred. This unlawful use could pertain to texting, internet, or 3rd party app usage — such as Snapchat or Facebook, for instance.

“But how is that even lawful?” you might be wondering.

Well, in order to circumvent the Constitutional, Fourth Amendment right to a user’s privacy, Cellebrite’s “textalyzer” will supposedly allow conversations, contacts, phone numbers, photos, and application data to remain private — while it will only reveal whether the phone was in use at or within the timeframe of the accident.

In New York, the proposed legislation making this all possible is known as “Evan’s Law” — after 19-year-old, Evan Lieberman, who was killed by a distracted driver back in 2011. The deceased teenager’s father, Ben Lieberman, is the co-founder of a lobbying group known as “Distracted Operators Risk Casualties” (DORCs) — which has been pushing for the legislation since early 2013.

“When people were held accountable for drunk driving, that’s when positive change occurred. It’s time to recognize that distracted driving is a similar impairment, and should be dealt with in a similar fashion. This is a way to address people who are causing damage,” Lieberman said in a press release.

The proposed bill is currently making its way through the state senate in New York, and, once it’s passed by the oversight committee, Cellebrite will have to bid for the project alongside a few other firms that currently offer similar software solutions.

According to the most recent data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nine people die and more than 1,153 are injured in the United States, daily, as the result of cellphone-use related distracted driving accidents. However, even as staggering as those statistics may seem, they account for only 20 percent of all accidents caused by distracted driving.

California has already passed similar legislation barring the use of cellphones while driving — laws which are punishable by fines ranging anywhere from $20 for first-time offenders, up to $50 for each subsequent offense.

Learn More: Why Bernie Sanders Believes Apple Should Manufacture More Products in the U.S.

What are your thoughts about this new “textalyzer” protocol for law enforcement purposes? Let us know in the comments below!

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