Auto locksmith

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An Auto Locksmith is a locksmith that specialises in vehicle entry and transponder key programming.

Cars produced in the UK since 1995 are legally required to be fitted with an immobiliser system. These cars require a key with an embedded electronic transponder to start the vehicle. When the key is turned in the ignition the code is read and the vehicle will only start if the correct code is received.

This system was introduced to help reduce vehicle crime. If the transonder key is missing or faulty the car will not start.

Lost car keys can be replaced by a specialist auto locksmith. A good auto locksmith will be able to cut a new car key, clone the transponder and reproduce a key fob that activates the vehicles central locking system.

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'Full disclosure'

The issue of full disclosure was first raised in the context of locksmithing, in a 19th century controversy regarding whether weaknesses in lock systems should be kept secret in the locksmithing community, or revealed to the public.

According to A. C. Hobbs:

A commercial, and in some respects a social doubt has been started within the last year or two, whether or not it is right to discuss so openly the security or insecurity of locks. Many well-meaning persons suppose that the discussion respecting the means for baffling the supposed safety of locks offers a premium for dishonesty, by showing others how to be dishonest. This is a fallacy. Rogues are very keen in their profession, and know already much more than we can teach them respecting their several kinds of roguery. Rogues knew a good deal about lock-picking long before locksmiths discussed it among themselves, as they have lately done. If a lock, let it have been made in whatever country, or by whatever maker, is not so inviolable as it has hitherto been deemed to be, surely it is to the interest of honest persons to know this fact, because the dishonest are tolerably certain to apply the knowledge practically; and the spread of the knowledge is necessary to give fair play to those who might suffer by ignorance. It cannot be too earnestly urged that an acquaintance with real facts will, in the end, be better for all parties. Some time ago, when the reading public was alarmed at being told how London milk is adulterated, timid persons deprecated the exposure, on the plea that it would give instructions in the art of adulterating milk; a vain fear, milkmen knew all about it before, whether they practiced it or not; and the exposure only taught purchasers the necessity of a little scrutiny and caution, leaving them to obey this necessity or not, as they pleased.

-- From A. C. Hobbs (Charles Tomlinson, ed.), Locks and Safes: The Construction of Locks. Published by Virtue & Co., London, 1853 (revised 1868).

Locksmithing is a traditional trade, and in most countries requires completion of an Apprenticeship. The level of formal education required varies from country to country, from a simple training certificate awarded by an employer, to a full Diploma from an Engineering College (such as in Australia) in addition to time spent working as an apprentice.