The FAA has been subjecting the traveling public to very restrictive electronic device policies for a long time. Anyone who’s ever been on a plane has been asked to shut off an electronic device for takeoff or landing. It’s been arguably a stupid policy, but it’s been universal and not left to the discretion of the airplane flight staff. That may be changing.

Nick Bilton has written a post for The New York Times Bits blog about plans to modify the policy. The proposed change would represent progress, while being a potential enforcement nightmare. Marco Arment has summed up the potential problems nicely in a great post.

This promises to be a giant mess.