It started out as a digital hub for credit cards and concert tickets, allowing anyone with an iPhone to swing through cash registers and turnstiles.
The technology then expanded to data on vaccine passports during the pandemic. And this week, the Apple Wallet, an app for iPhones and Apple Watches that stores payment information and QR codes, added driver licenses for the first time.
On Wednesday, Arizona became the first state to offer digital copies of driver’s licenses and state identification cards as part of a sweeping partnership with Apple announced last year.
The project is expected to expand to Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah, as well as the territory of Puerto Rico. The initiative has been promoted by the tech giant and the states for convenience.
However, the expansion is drawing renewed attention to privacy issues and Apple’s undue influence. Few places will accept the digital driver’s license at the start of the program, and Apple hasn’t said when the other states and Puerto Rico will join Arizona.
However, Arizona residents should hold off on throwing out their old-school driver’s licenses and government ID cards. The digital ones are not valid if stopped by the police or carded in a bar.
For now, the digital licenses will only be accepted at select security checkpoints at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport operated by the Transportation Security Administration, a federal agency, officials said.
On Thursday, the state’s Motor Vehicles Division, which is part of the Arizona Department of Transportation, estimated that 11,500 people had requested digital copies of their driver’s licenses or state ID cards.
“If they like technology and want to be an early adopter of it, sure,” Bill Lamoreaux, a spokesman for the Motor Vehicles Division in Arizona, said Thursday. “This is absolutely voluntary.”
Announcing the feature’s debut, Apple said that residents of participating states could press the plus sign in their Apple Wallets to add their licensed or state-issued ID card to their iPhone or Apple Watch.
The process requires participants to photograph the front and back of their license with their phone’s camera and make a series of facial and head movements, Apple said. Users must also provide a selfie, which will be sent to their state along with their license photos using encryption so that local authorities can verify their identities.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much it would cost states to investigate requests related to the digital licenses, which Apple and government officials said would not incur additional costs for people using them.
At airport security checkpoints, people with an iPhone or an Apple Watch can hold the device up to an electronic reader, which will then ask them to use facial recognition, a fingerprint, or a passcode on their phone to authorize their sending. encrypted information to a TSA agent, Apple said.
The company stressed that personal information is not stored on Apple’s servers and that people should never hand over their phones to the security agents.
But not everyone is so optimistic about expanding technology.
“Apple is now trying to vertically integrate your entire life into its phone,” Elizabeth M. Renieris, a professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame, said Friday.
Professor Renieris said that while Apple is known for its robust encryption technology, she said the company is poised to gather even more information about its customers’ habits and daily activities.
“They normalize the presentation of identification and other credentials,” she said. “This is also in response to the conversation about digital vaccine passports.”
Residents of some states can request a digital copy of their coronavirus vaccination card that can be added to their Apple Wallet, which displays a QR code unique to that person. One such state is Connecticut, which plans to join Apple’s digital licensing program.
Tony Guerrera, the deputy commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, said Friday that the state was still assessing technology aspects of the initiative, including privacy concerns. The state has no timetable for when digital licenses will be available, he said.
“We just want to make sure all our i’s are dotted and all our t’s are crossed,” said Mr Guerrera. “That’s why we don’t rush into this.”
Still, he said, he sees the appeal of being able to store a copy of a license on an iPhone or Apple Watch.
“Listen, in today’s techno world, I would think there would be a lot of people who would love to have something like this,” he said. “Apple is a world-renowned company and they’ve done their research and they know people want this.”
