World News

New ‘Textalyzer’ Will Allow Police to See if You Were Scrolling Facebook or Sending Texts While Driving

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Tony Maples Photography

 

In New York, officials are testing out a new Textalyzer application to be used by police when a traffic accident takes place. According to News 10, “The device is similar to a Breathalyzer, but instead of helping police detect if a driver was drinking, it determines if he or she was texting while driving.”

A video from NBC Nightly News shows how the Textalyzer app accurately grabs data from a person’s phone to tell the exact moment they answered phone calls, opened chat programs like WhatsApp, checked social media on Facebook, and sent regular text messages.

Judging from the Facebook comments left on NBC Nightly News’s video, people are worried about how this correlates to using Bluetooth technology in one’s car, and if using the application to search someone’s phone is even constitutional. Also, what happens if someone’s passenger was sending a text for the driver?

Others are ready to see it in action. Karyl Carmignani wrote, “Just don’t fiddle with your phone while behind the wheel and you won’t have to worry.”

At this time, the Textalyzer app isn’t ready to be taken out on the road yet, but a proposed piece of legislation would have drivers losing their license if they didn’t give over their phone to police.