Push to Remove DUI Apps from Smartphones
Concerned that applications that reveal DUI and DWI checkpoints on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones will encourage people to drink and drive, a group of senators recently approached three manufacturers -- Research in Motion, Apple, and Google -- to stop selling the apps for the devices.

December 11, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Push to Remove DUI Apps from Smartphones

Concerned that applications that reveal DUI and DWI checkpoints on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones will encourage people to drink and drive, a group of senators recently approached three manufacturers -- Research in Motion, Apple, and Google -- to stop selling the apps for the devices.

Senators Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, and Tom Udall wrote to the makers of the phones, noting in particular an application that contains the location of "DUI checkpoints updated in real time" and another application that allows phone owners to warn each other of the checkpoints as they occur.

The apps actually serve a wider purpose as traffic apps, and perform functions in addition to warning of DUI check points, including advising of breakdowns, train tracks, speed bumps, red light cameras, and dangerous curves and intersections, among others. The senators want the traffic apps pulled from the market until the DUI checkpoint warning programs are removed from them, arguing that the lives of innocent families are put at risk when people choose to drink and then use the applications to avoid checkpoints when they drive.

While the removal of DUI apps has thus far been voluntary, no legislation has yet been passed to make the apps themselves illegal. Attorney generals in states such as Maryland and Delaware, however, have joined the senators in requesting that the manufacturers voluntarily remove the applications.

Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry phones, banned the DUI apps as soon as the senators brought the concern to the company's attention. Apple just recently banned new apps that provide DUI checkpoint information not published by law enforcement for its iPhones, but has taken no action regarding the existing applications being sold in its store. Google, on the other hand, has stated it will continue to sell the apps because "they do not violate the company's content policy."

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