Apple Introduces Digital ID, but It Doesn’t Replace Your Passport

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Originally published at: Apple Introduces Digital ID, but It Doesn’t Replace Your Passport - TidBITS

Apple continues to push forward with adding digital ID cards to Apple Wallet (see “Apple Announces Details of Storing State IDs in Wallet,” 2 September 2021). Currently, iPhone users can add a driver’s license or state ID to the Wallet app in 12 US states—Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia came online recently—and Puerto Rico. Those in Japan can add My Number Card.

Apple has now launched the more general Digital ID, which will initially roll out in beta at TSA checkpoints at more than 250 US airports for in-person identity verification during domestic travel. Apple promises more ways to use Digital ID in the future.

You create a Digital ID by scanning the photo page of your US passport and allowing the iPhone to read the embedded chip via NFC. It’s an easy, if slightly fussy, process that Apple documents well. It took me just a few minutes to add my Digital ID and for Wallet to verify it. You’re asked to make several movements during the verification phase, which, along with the selfie or Live Photo, likely prevents most spoofing techniques. (Facial spoofing always makes me think of the “Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star” TV episode, where the murderer’s alibi relies on a photo taken from an automatic speed camera—but it was really an accomplice with a flat, photographic mask.)

Apple Digital ID creation

Presenting a Digital ID is basically the same as paying with Apple Pay. Double-click the side or Home button, tap the Digital ID, and place the top of the iPhone near the identity reader. Your iPhone can remain locked, but you review a consent sheet showing who’s requesting your data, what fields will be shared, and whether they’ll retain it, and you authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID. You don’t need to unlock, show, or hand over your device. You can also present your Digital ID with an Apple Watch by double‑clicking the side button. Some identity checkpoints may require additional steps—the TSA identity readers capture your image for comparison with the image presented from your Digital ID.

As always, Apple emphasizes how the information associated with a Digital ID is both private and secure. It’s worth reading Apple’s detailed description of what information is shared with issuing authorities, temporarily with Apple during setup, and when you present the Digital ID. It all sounds sensible enough to me, though I suspect those with heightened privacy concerns won’t be swayed either way.

The bigger problem with the Digital ID is that it solves hardly any real-world problems. Although you can create a Digital ID from a passport, it’s not a replacement for a physical passport and cannot be used for international travel or border crossings. The main people who stand to benefit significantly from a Digital ID are those who fly domestically but don’t have (or frequently fail to carry) a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or state ID. That seems like a tricky proposition to me.

If you live in one of the 12 states with support for digital driver’s licenses, you might think that the combination would be good enough to leave your physical driver’s license at home. However, as I wrote in “California Driver’s Licenses in Apple Wallet Largely Symbolic” (16 August 2024)—and nothing appears to have changed—all of these states tell residents to continue to carry their physical driver’s licenses to present to law enforcement. Even Apple acknowledges this in light gray fine print at the bottom of the Add Your Driver’s License to Apple Wallet page, saying:

ID in Wallet is not a replacement for a physical ID which may still be needed (e.g. for use with law enforcement).

Look, I’m philosophically inclined toward living digitally when possible, but the value proposition for Digital ID and digital versions of state driver’s licenses just isn’t compelling. If I have to carry my driver’s license whenever I leave the house in the car—which includes getting to an airport for a domestic flight or driving to a liquor store—there’s little benefit to being able to present digital identification in favor of the physical card that lives in my iPhone wallet case anyway. I’ll probably try the Digital ID the next time I fly, but more out of curiosity than any belief that it will be a significantly different user experience.

Have you found a situation where a digital ID stored in the Wallet app has been more than a novelty?

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I loaded mine the day it was available in my state and I’ve tried to find any opportunity to use it, but there just isn’t one.

In my experience, anyone who won’t just accept your face and word won’t accept some weird thing on your phone either.

Nobody understands what it actually is when you show it to them. Technically it’s in the validated section of Wallet and requires Face ID to verify that it’s really your information being shown.

In practice that is absolutely worthless because absolutely no one knows that, and if they did somehow happen to know it, they aren’t allowed to accept it anyway. If they aren’t in the position to make the judgement call to just take your word for it, they aren’t in the position to accept that, either.

It might be useful for domestic flights but I haven’t tried it and honestly I’m reluctant to do anything when attempting to board a plane that singles me out as in any way unusual or too “clever.”

I believe this is just the chicken (or egg?) of getting everyone on to a national digital ID system, and let me tell you I don’t believe the purpose of that is to make it easier to board a plane…

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I just saw on MacRumors that US Passports can now be added as a Digital ID to Apple Wallet for use at TSA checkpoints.

For anybody interested, here are a couple of related Apple Support documents that discuss the setup process, data sharing details, and security:

Two things I learned from Apple’s articles: about the Live Photo function and that the chips in passports are readable by Apple devices.

I’m going to wait a few days before adding my passport—I’m not that interested in beta testing via releases, as is the practice in Silicon Valley these days—but at the moment, the benefits seem to outweigh the disadvantages and risks for me.

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I’m trying to understand exactly what the benefits are. Maybe I can use this at a TSA checkpoint if I’ve lost my wallet while I am traveling away from home (domestically), but I’m always going to have my physical license with me otherwise. As I live in the rural suburbs (there are two separate farms on my one-mile long road), anyplace I go will require driving from home unless I hire a limo service.

As for beta testing, I think digital driver licenses and IDs has been a thing on iPhones for a couple of years now.

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For me, some of the benefits are related to that I live in an urban area—so I am less reliant on my car than suburban and rural people—and my current driver’s license is not TSA-compliant. I also want to use my passport for Digital ID because my passport number is not permanently assigned while my driver’s license number never changes.

At airports, I usually have digital boarding passes so using a Digital ID means less stuff to juggle at security checkpoints. Finally, if I am outside of the USA and need to replace a lost or stolen passport, perhaps the Digital ID will help embassies and consulates verify my identity more quickly.

I view the passport in Apple Wallet as beta because the capability just launched and the verification process with the federal government is new.

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I just added my passport to Wallet. The whole process was simple except I had to take my photos several times before the app accepted them.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have a chance to use it, though, because I don’t like to travel.

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Right now only a quarter of all states offer digital DLs through Wallet. This opens up digital ID in Wallet to potentially all Americans, regardless of state.

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There is an exactly zero chance I am ever handing my iPhone to a government agent. But, as a backup for a lost wallet, it’s a nice feature.

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It doesn’t work like that. You tap a reader, iOS tells you what information is being transferred, and you authenticate (FaceID, TouchID). Then they see your details on their end. Unlike your DL/passport, your iPhone never leaves your hands.

Detailed description is here: Use your Digital ID in Apple Wallet - Apple Support

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That’s the benefit.

I’ve been taking my expired passport with me just in case. You’re supposed to be able to use it for identification purposes.

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Yeah, this seems like a technology whose time has not yet come. At some point, this will be useful, I’m sure. Most days, I don’t drive (or fly, or buy alcohol, for that matter) and so I can leave my wallet at home. One less thing to worry about. Maybe in five years, that will be almost every day.

I’ve had my virtual driver’s license on my phone for years now and haven’t used it once.

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I just like having everything in one place although I’ll be in big trouble if I lose my phone.

But when I pick up one of my prescriptions at Costco, I still have to show them the real driver’s license even though they’ve known me for years. They wouldn’t even accept the photocopy of the license on my phone.

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I have both the California Driver’s Licence and new Digital ID on my iPhone. When I loaded them, I tried to also have them load to my Apple Watch 10. I’ve had no success doing that. In Watch Wallet settings, they both show up as items from the phone to be added, but after going through the photo verification, they still claim the need to verify them.

Apple Support provided no direct resolution and recommended the expected next step of unpairing and then re-pairing the Apple Watch and trying again.

Has anyone successfully gotten the Digital IDs on their Apple Watch? Has anyone needed to go through the re-pair cycle to do it? Has anyone gone through the re-pair cycle and still had it not work?

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I’ve been digging more into how Digital ID works. Apple says:

Your identity card images are encrypted on device and sent to your government issuing authority, which may share them with their third-party identity verification service provider; Apple does not see or store images of your identity card.

That’s for state-issued identity cards. So far I haven’t found any information about how passports are verified. If a third-party service is used, I’m unlikely to add my passport to Wallet. If a third-party service is used and it is the provider used by the IRS, ID.me, I won’t be using Digital ID.

Why? As somebody interested in startups, small to medium sized companies, venture capital, private equity, and watching distressed companies, I don’t want to trust unregulated third-parties with sensitive identity information if I can avoid it. Bankruptcies, mergers, and cost cutting are almost always bad for privacy and security. And specifically, I think ID.me has shown itself to be untrustworthy.

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I’ll join @ace in the TSA queue next time and see if this works (with my CA D/L in my pocket, just in case). Speaking of my driver’s license, I had previously stored it in Wallet, but when I looked for it while creating my Digital ID (not a requirement of the process, I was just curious), it was gone! To be fair, I did get a new phone recently, so perhaps that’s another item that doesn’t survive the migration process. I added it back in, and Apple has now added all the live photo and facial movement steps required by Digital ID to the driver’s license process too (at least for CA).

And regarding the usefulness of having your d/l in Wallet, I actually have used it a couple times. Those requesting my d/l seemed completely baffled by me showing it to them from Wallet (I didn’t have the actual card on my person at the time), but when I showed them all the information on the information screen, they were satisfied. Maybe just lucky, I guess.

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My My Number Card is in my Wallet. After reading your article, I opened it up and confirmed it was there and “ready to use” and I could see my photo and ID, etc.

But even after clicking their “i” icon for more information, I have no idea how to make use of the digital My Number card.

I use my physical My Number card regularly. As of late, it has replaced national health insurance cards, so I use it at hospitals and doctors’ office. But I don’t see any way of using my digital My Number card there. I wonder if that is somehow possible.

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Just want to add TSA has a 2-year limit on accepting expired IDs:

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This is my moment to remind people that you don’t need ID to fly domestically,

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Every time I’ve flown I’ve had to produce an ID compliant driver’s license or a passport at TSA.

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If you’re flying in a private plane, you only have to satisfy the plane’s owner.

But if you are flying commercially…