The company emphasized that personal information is not stored on Apple’s servers, and that people will never have to hand over their phones to the security agents.īut not everyone is so bullish on the expanding technology. It was not immediately clear how much it would cost the states to vet the requests associated with the digital licenses, which Apple and state officials said would not create an additional expense for people using them.Īt the airport security checkpoints, people with an iPhone or an Apple Watch can hold the device up to an electronic reader, which will then prompt them to use facial recognition, a thumbprint or a passcode on their phone to consent to transmitting their encrypted information to a T.S.A.
Users must also provide a selfie, which is sent to their state using encryption along with the photos of their license so that local authorities can verify their identity. The process requires participants to photograph the front and back of their license using their phone’s camera, and to complete a series of facial and head movements, according to Apple. In announcing the debut of this feature, Apple said that residents in participating states could press the plus sign in their Apple Wallets to add their license or state-issued ID card to their iPhone or Apple Watch. “If they like technology and they want to be an early adopter for it, by all means,” Bill Lamoreaux, a spokesman for the Motor Vehicles Division in Arizona, said on Thursday. The digital ones will not be valid should they get pulled over by the police or carded at a bar.įor now, the digital licenses will only be accepted at select security screening checkpoints at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport that are operated by the Transportation Security Administration, a federal agency, officials said.Īs of 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. The apps are compatible with iPhones and Android devices.Īrizona residents should hold off on discarding their old-school driver’s licenses and government identification cards, though. Few places will accept the digital driver’s licenses at the start of the program, and Apple did not say when the other states and Puerto Rico would join Arizona.Īpart from the Apple Wallet initiative, Louisiana and Colorado have their own smartphone apps that offer digital driver’s licenses that are recognized by certain law enforcement agencies. However, the expansion is drawing renewed scrutiny to privacy issues and Apple’s outsize sphere of influence.
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