How can we move the humble state driver’s license or ID card into the 21st century? Today, U.S. state licenses are the principal consumer ID for day-to-day purposes. They certify identity and age using anti-counterfeiting features and are used to verify driving, or non-driving, privileges.
However, they have two major flaws. First, showing identification cards reveals all personal information to the identifier. If the ID is scanned, personal information is then stored with the scanner. Second, current state IDs are only usable in-person, despite the trend of moving public and private services online. Estimates suggest that in 2022, Americans will be spending 60% of their time online often giving away personal information for every new site or transaction.
However, some states are using existing and well-tested technology to make their state ID cards more useful and more private at the same time without compromising security: digital ID.
Digital IDs are authorized digital copies of a physical card that, using encryption and secure hardware, verify identity without sharing personal details. They bring identity verification from the physical sphere to the digital one, filling a security gap online by offering verifiable, and private, identification for public sector benefits and services but also private transactions. In addition, digital ID programs can facilitate greater children’s privacy, by requiring age verification to access certain websites.
On the rise globally, Estonia, Canada, Germany, India, the U.K., and the European Union, among others, already use or have announced digital ID programs.
In the United States, which has no national ID, Arizona and Louisiana adopted programs where residents can digitize their state ID cards. Since its launch in 2016, a million Louisianans use the digital ID accessible from the state’s ID app. Arizona’s digital ID launched in 2022 in partnership with Apple and Google, too, announced a new mobile wallet with digital ID features at Google I/O 2022. Their program, rather than using a state-specific app, allows users to add their mobile ID directly to their smartphone mobile wallet; if Arizona’s model is successful, other states may follow.
Naturally, there is consumer skepticism that a digital system could be as secure, or more secure, than a physical card. Tying immutable identity characteristics to government databases requires high levels of trust, security, and privacy.
India’s digital ID program has been infamously insecure, exposing the biometrics and unique identity number a million residents. Kenya’s digital identity program was halted by the Kenyan High Court, which ruled that enrolling all citizens in a biometric ID database was illegal without clear documentation of data privacy risk assessment and mitigation strategies. The United States, too, lacks universal privacy protections for citizens.
The U.S. case is different from other digital ID systems as the country has no national ID — the Louisiana and Arizona digital ID pilot do not propose that. In addition, REAL IDs, which are the current gold standard in the U.S. for secure, physical ID cards, are not linked to citizen biometrics or immutable characteristics apart from a photo compatible with facial recognition scans. These features help keep physical ID cards secure. The Louisiana and Arizona mobile ID systems do not capture any additional data that is not already captured by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. In the Arizona case, the digital copy is stored in a smartphone using mobile wallet technology. Personal information is not shared with the phone or service provider.
The digital ID system being implemented by Arizona is based on the same technology that allows consumers to add credit cards to their digital wallets for wireless payments. They require the use of a pin or biometric authentication, and due to dynamic encryption, which assigns a unique, random number to every transaction, are more secure and private than a traditional card. If a phone is lost, it can be remotely wiped, and users will still be able to use their physical credit or ID card. Digital state IDs, using this design, could be used in any situation where identity verification is required but need not be revealed, like traffic stops, in bars, with the TSA, and even in online shopping or website sign-up, all while keeping user identity secure.
ID cards are essential tools to verify access to services. In their current form, they require giving away personal information without giving users a way to securely identify themselves in a crucial modern space: online. Mobile IDs bridge this gap and, with appropriate security and privacy measures, can serve consumers more effectively than standard ID cards alone.
How do mobile wallets work?