Apple has confirmed a list of states that will be first to adopt the company’s digital driver’s license and state ID feature coming to the Wallet app in iOS 15. According to a press release, Arizona and Georgia will let their residents add their IDs to their digital wallets, while others such as Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah will follow.
Storing your ID in your phone has seemed like a natural progression of the tech industry’s effort to replace your wallet with your phone, and Apple’s latest efforts will help expedite that process. Of course, when you store your ID in your Wallet, it won’t work identically to how your physical ID does, and that’s where concerns rise.
Some assumed that, for example, a police officer needs to see your phone, they would simply take your entire phone and record the information you need. According to Apple, no entity who needs your ID will need to take your phone. Instead, those people will have special readers that will let you tap to scan your ID, sort of like tapping to pay with Apple Pay. “Users do not need to unlock, show, or hand over their device to present their ID,” the company writes in its press release.
Obviously, it will take a long time for organizations like law enforcement to adopt the necessary readers to support digital IDs, so even if you live in a state where the functionality will roll out to in the fall, you’ll want to carry your physical ID for the foreseeable future.
With digital IDs, Apple is also assuring users that it stores their information securely. The company lists multiple security and privacy points to ease users’ worries.
– Apple and the issuing states do not know when or where users present their IDs.
– Driver’s licenses and state IDs in Wallet take full advantage of the privacy and security built into iPhone and Apple Watch. Customers’ identity data is encrypted and protected against tampering and theft. Biometric authentication using Face ID and Touch ID ensures that only the person who added the ID to the device can view or present their ID or license in Wallet.
– Driver’s licenses and state IDs in Wallet are only presented digitally through encrypted communication directly between the device and the identity reader, so users do not need to unlock, show, or hand over their device.
– If a user misplaces their iPhone or Apple Watch, they can use the Find My app to lock their device and help locate it, or remotely erase a device.
– Apple’s mobile ID implementation supports the ISO 18013-5 mDL (mobile driver’s license) standard which Apple has played an active role in the development of, and which sets clear guidelines for the industry around protecting consumers’ privacy when presenting an ID or driver’s license through a mobile device.
If you want to use this feature, you’ll have to wait for iOS 15 and watchOS 8 to roll out. Then, Apple will likely need to enable the feature within Wallet according to where you reside. That means you’ll likely have to wait a little while before you can start tapping to identify yourself, so hang tight.
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