Since its pilot launch in September, California’s digital driver’s license has quietly attracted half a million users, more than any other state, but still less than 2% of the state’s drivers’ license holders.
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a move that could make the so-called mobile driver’s license more widely appealing: Apple and Google will soon support the license in the wallets they preload on all iPhones and Android smartphones.
Until now, the state has required you to use the California Department of Motor Vehicles wallet app to store licenses on your phone. The DMV Wallet, available through the Google and Apple app stores, is a single-purpose software program, and your phone may already be loaded with single-purpose apps from retailers, financial services, smart devices, ticketing companies, streamers, and the like.
Once Google and Apple update their smartphone software (no date was announced Thursday), people will be able to sign up for a California mobile license and download it directly to the wallets already on their iPhone or Android phone.
But if that happens, there will still be one major hurdle for the mobile license, said DMV Director Steve Gordon: the limited number of places you can use them.
So far, the Transportation Security Administration will only accept the mobile license at Los Angeles International, San Francisco International and San Jose Mineta airports, though the TSA has said it will roll out to the rest of the state’s commercial airports later this year, Gordon said. And only a handful of stores in downtown Los Angeles and Sacramento will let you use the digital ID to verify your age, according to a map on the DMV website.
Read more: California to Test Digital Driver’s Licenses. Should You Worry About Your Personal Data?
One potential benefit of a digital license is that it can limit how much of your personal information you reveal when someone asks to check your ID. For example, if you don’t want that creepy bouncer or overly friendly cashier to see your home address when you show proof of age, a digital license can simply confirm that you’re 21 or older — and share nothing else.
To accomplish that feat, however, requires special software in the hands of retailers, restaurants, bars, clubs and other businesses that recognizes and exchanges information with them. The process is based on industry standards, so multiple age-verification apps can emerge; the DMV’s wallet uses an add-on app called TruAge.
Like about a dozen other states that have adopted some form of digital ID, California faces what Gordon calls a chicken-and-egg problem: Businesses want more people to adopt digital licenses before they decide to support them, and people want the licenses to be more widely accepted before they apply for one.
Gordon says consumers often say, “Okay, I have it, but now what do I do with it?”
By getting Apple and Google involved, more people would be able to download their licenses. However, Gordon said those two companies, not the DMV, will determine which features of the license their wallets support.
In a statement, Apple said its Wallet offered extensive privacy protections. “When you present a driver’s license and state ID in Apple Wallet, only the information needed for the transaction is presented, and users are required to verify and authorize Face ID or Touch ID before the information is shared. Users do not need to unlock, show, or hand over their device to present their ID,” the company said.
Google has also stated that licensees in its wallet may share only the minimum amount of data necessary for a particular transaction or service. Other personal information remains hidden.
The technical standards for digital licenses are designed to prevent the unauthorized transfer and collection of personal information. This is a level of protection that physical licenses cannot provide. (Ever wonder what happens to the photocopies of your license that some service providers want to make?)
Still, privacy advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation have questioned whether the standards have been in place long enough to be fully audited. The EFF also says that retailers could still combine the limited digital information from your license with other information they collect about you and sell it to data brokers.
Read more: There’s a new deadline to get Real ID. Here’s why you need one
While states have made their digital licenses optional, some civil liberties advocates also worry about the prospect of mandatory digital IDs, which would raise equity issues in addition to privacy concerns. In a 2021 report, the American Civil Liberties Union found seven major potential downsides to the trend toward mobile licensing, including the risk that police might ask to see your digital license as a pretext to search your smartphone.
“If not done right, digital driver’s licenses could be disastrous for privacy, exacerbate inequality, and lead to ubiquitous ID checks in American life, including online,” Jay Stanley, a senior ACLU policy analyst, said when the report was released. “We need to be very careful about this.”
Proponents of digital licensing argue that privacy and security considerations have been integral to the development of the licensing standards and that the digital versions are far superior to their plastic counterparts on both counts.
For example, Apple said, “Apple and the ID issuing authority do not know when, where, or to whom a user presents their driver’s license or ID card. Additionally, Apple does not see or store any information about the presentation that can be tied to a user.”
Meanwhile, government officials in the U.S. continue their work. Virtually every state is either implementing digital licensing or studying the issue.
Gore said the DMV is working with other California agencies to find more uses for the digital license, such as in disaster response. And in the near future, she said, retailers with Clover and Verifone point-of-sale terminals will begin to recognize the state’s digital license.
Gordon said California’s adoption rate of its digital license is on par with other states’ efforts, despite using its own wallet instead of the popular ones from Apple and Google. And there’s a hard limit to how far the program can grow: State lawmakers have capped the pilot at 1.5 million digital licenses.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.