smartphone
Let an agent recognise a smartphone, know whose it is and what it can currently do, and decide what may be asked of it - including what must not be, because it is the most personal object most people own.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
5 bundles · 10 layers · 10 findings · 20 questions
Device identity and holder Which device this is, who holds it, and what that entitles them to.
Hardware identity
What names this handset as opposed to another of the same model.
Identifiers and what each identifies
IMEI names the device, the SIM names the subscription, the account names the person, and they move independently.
- What IMEI, model and regional variant does this device carry, and which of those changes when the SIM changes? definition
- What evidence establishes that this device is the one a record refers to? provenance
Holder, accounts and enrolment
Who carries it, whose accounts it is signed into, and who manages it.
Who controls it, and at which layer
Possession, account ownership and device management are three different powers over one object.
- Who holds this device, whose accounts are signed in on it, and who can administer it remotely? definition
- What must an agent refuse to do with a device whose holder is not its account owner? action
Capability and current state What this handset can do right now, as opposed to what the model can do.
Power and endurance
Charge, battery health and what running out means.
Endurance under a stated workload
How long it will last doing a particular thing, not in the abstract.
- What charge and battery health does this device have, and how long does that give it under the intended workload? measurement
- What should an agent do differently when the device may go flat mid-task? action
Connectivity and permissions
Which radios are available and what software is allowed to use which sensor.
What is permitted, to whom
Permissions are per-application and revocable, and they bound everything an agent can ask of the device.
- Which networks is this device attached to, and which sensors and data are permitted to the software that would act? definition
- What must be asked of the holder rather than assumed from a permission already granted? action
Software, updates and support life What it runs, and how long that stays safe to run.
Platform and version
Operating system, version, and the software that is actually installed.
Version and what depends on it
What the current version permits, and what a required update would change.
- What platform and version is this device on, and what capability does that version gate? definition
- What breaks for the holder if it is updated, and what is at risk if it is not? action
Support window
How long the vendor will issue security updates, and what follows after.
End of support and its consequence
The date, its source, and what an agent should stop doing with the device after it.
- Until when does this model receive security updates, and who states that? provenance
- What may an unsupported device no longer be trusted to do - payments, authentication, sensitive data? boundary
Data held and exposure What is on it, who can reach that, and what a loss means.
Contents and their sensitivity
Categories of data present and which of them are sensitive by law.
What is held, and under whose control
Local data, synchronised data, and credentials that unlock other systems.
- What categories of data does this device hold or unlock, and which are on it rather than merely visible through it? definition
- Whose consent governs each category, and what may an agent not read even with the device in hand? action
Loss, theft and compromise
What happens when it goes, and what the response is.
Response to loss or compromise
The sequence that limits harm, and who is able to perform each step.
- What happens to the data and the credentials when this device is lost or stolen? boundary
- What must be done first, by whom, and what evidence should be preserved? action
Lifecycle, repair and disposal How it enters service, what may be repaired, and how it ends.
Repair and refurbishment
What can be repaired, by whom, and what a repair does to warranties and ratings.
Repair and its consequences
Parts, pairing, and what a repair invalidates.
- Which components of this device are replaceable, by whom, and what does replacement invalidate? definition
- How should an agent record that a device has been repaired, given that it changes ingress protection and sometimes function? provenance
Erasure and disposal
Wiping, recycling routes and the battery.
End-of-life handling
What must be erased, what must be separated, and who must be told.
- What must be erased or unlinked before this device leaves its holder, and how is that verified? action
- Which disposal routes are lawful for a device with a lithium battery in the relevant jurisdiction? definition
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Physical world and living systems
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- PHY
- Domain
- PHY.OBJ
- Other names and narrower kinds
- slate smartphone, LG Optimus, phablet, Honor X series, foldable smartphone, Huawei Y9a, Sony Xperia 5 II, OnePlus 8T, realme 7 Pro, Huawei P40, Huawei Mate 40 Pro+, Honor 6C
What it is Filled
A pocket-sized computer with a cellular radio, an interface that may use a touchscreen, physical keyboard or buttons, and an operating system that runs third-party applications, carried by one person and normally tied to that person's accounts.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent recognise a smartphone, know whose it is and what it can currently do, and decide what may be asked of it - including what must not be, because it is the most personal object most people own.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Runs third-party applications on a general-purpose operating system, which separates it from a feature phone that also makes calls
- Carries a cellular radio and a subscriber identity, which separates it from a small tablet or media player with the same shape
- Sized to be carried in one hand and a pocket, which is the working boundary with tablets rather than any technical property
- Bound to accounts and credentials, which is why an identical device with a different owner is a different problem entirely
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Unlock, read or copy a phone's contents without its user's consent or a lawful order.
- Install software on someone else's phone or change its settings without the user's knowledge.
- Track a person through their phone without consent or legal basis.
- Impersonate the phone's owner in messages or calls.
Only with a human decision
- Accessing a phone of a person who cannot consent, such as a deceased or incapacitated user.
- Wiping or locking a phone reported lost or stolen.
May
- Help its user operate it with the user's consent.
- Read status information the user has chosen to share, such as battery or connectivity.
Moral aspects Filled
- A smartphone holds a person's private life; access to it is access to the person.
- Phones are used to monitor partners and children; agents must not enable covert surveillance.
Who is affected
- The phone's user
- People in the user's contacts and messages
Owners Filled
Steward
The person who uses it; the network operator holds the subscription and the manufacturer the device identity.
Master systems
- Mobile network subscriber records
- Device registries such as IMEI blocklists
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q1067263 - registry parent class
- Q11253473 - registry parent class
- Q16917685 - registry parent class
- Q17517 - registry parent class
- Q2858615 - registry parent class
related
- mobile computer - it inherits everything true of portable computers, including update and end-of-life questions
- tablet - same platform and often the same software; the difference is carriability and a cellular subscription
- battery charger - the device is inert without it, and charging behaviour is a real constraint on any plan
- cellular network - most of what it does depends on a network it does not control
- the person's accounts - the device is not the identity it carries, and resetting one does not reset the other
contains
- battery - the battery ages faster than the device and decides when it is finished
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.smartphone
- Wikidata: Q22645 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22645)
- IMEI: 15 digits identifies the individual device; a dual-SIM device has two
- model number: vendor-specific regional variants of one model differ in radio bands
- ICCID / IMSI: on the SIM identifies the subscription, not the device, and moves between devices
Direct properties required Filled
- mass: 150-250 g
- screen diagonal: 5.4-6.9 in - the boundary with tablets is conventional, not technical
- battery capacity: 3000-5500 mAh - usable life depends far more on age and workload than on this number
- ingress protection: IP53-IP68 IP code - the rating is tested new; it degrades with every repair and drop
Recognition required Filled
- Many smartphones have a screen occupying nearly the whole front face, while others have prominent physical keyboards or buttons.
- The camera array on the back has an arrangement that is the most reliable visual clue to model and generation.
- Model and regulatory markings are usually printed under the SIM tray or shown in a settings screen rather than on the case.
- The IMEI identifies the individual device and is the only thing here that is not cosmetic.
- A flat slab, typically 140 to 170 mm tall and 65 to 80 mm wide, under 10 mm thick, almost entirely screen on one face, with one or more camera lenses on the other and a single charging port on an edge.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- communicate through it, over cellular and local radios
- run applications that were not written by whoever made it
- sense - camera, microphone, position, motion - which is also what makes it a surveillance risk
- authenticate its holder to other systems, and so act as a key
- charge it, and lose all of the above when it is flat
- lose it or have it stolen, which is an identity incident rather than a property loss
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Battery degradation and swelling, which ends the device's usable life and is a fire risk when damaged
- Screen and water damage, the two most common physical failures
- Loss of vendor software support, which makes a working device unsafe to use rather than unusable
- Theft, which is an account compromise before it is a property loss
- Surveillance by whatever runs on it, since the sensors serve any application that is permitted them
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- 3GPP releases, which define the cellular radio generations a device supports
- Regional radio equipment approvals, which decide whether a given model may lawfully be used in a country
- Common charger requirements in some jurisdictions, which is why the port has converged
- Data protection regimes, which apply to what the device holds rather than to the device
Context of use required Filled
- Carrying a person's communications, identity, payments, navigation and sensing in one hand-held device that is with them almost all the time.
- by platform: iOS, Android, and the small remainder of others
- by tier: flagship, mid-range, entry - a market split that maps onto support lifetime more than onto capability
- by intent: consumer, rugged, enterprise-managed, single-purpose kiosk
- by subscriber identity: physical SIM, eSIM, dual-SIM
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q22645: smartphone - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Smartphone - general description of the item
Open questions
- Where should the model draw the line between the device and the person's digital identity, given that most consequences follow the identity rather than the hardware?
- How should support-window facts be attached - to the model, the regional variant, or the individual handset - when vendors state them inconsistently?
- Should an enterprise-managed handset be one thing with a management relation, or a different kind of thing from a personal one?
- What minimum evidence should an agent require before acting on a claim that a device belongs to a particular person?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q22645/spec.json