Tim
I suggest you also read
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-allen-dispatch-imei-urn-as-instanceid/
That will explain the primary application of this URN which is intended for use
in the 3GPP cellular standards.
Andrew
From: Tim Bray [mailto:tbray(_at_)textuality(_dot_)com]
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2013 10:02 AM Central Standard Time
To: IETF-Discussion Discussion <ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Subject: Last call: draft-montemurro-gsma-imei-urn-16.txt
Just wanted to point out that both Apple (for iOS) and Google (for Android)
have strongly discouraged the use of IMEI to identify devices for the purposes
of application software. There are privacy, quality, and availability issues
with their use. Apple has removed the ability of developers to work with the
(often IMEI-derived) “Universal Device ID” (see
http://blogs.avg.com/mobile-2/apple-ios-7-puts-unique-device-ids/) and Google
has officially deprecated their use:
http://android-developers.blogspot.ca/2011/03/identifying-app-installations.html
I’m not sure from reading the draft what the goal of having this URN namespace
is, but if it involves encouraging its use by application developers, I’m
pretty sure it’s a bad idea.
-Tim
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