Can you add your Driver's License to your Apple Wallet? Eben Brown explains

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kevin Brown joined US Now to talk about a little
more tech action happening with Apple and our legal IDs avan.
Good morning, welcome in.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You know, I saw this and I'm thinking, Okay, this
kind of makes sense. It's kind of where we're going on.
I mean, you can scan your phone to board an
airplane these days. But then I'm thinking, okay, driver's license
to get into a bar, driver's license to show to
a state trooper. I'm thinking, what's the number one reason
for pushing back on not doing this?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, I mean, if you don't want to do it,
then that's no one's forcing you to do it. It's
Apple is kind of matching what Google has already been doing,
and that is to allow different states that want to
participate to have a digital version of their state ID
that can be used inside their wallet. App Alabama not
one of them, just so you know, but the US

(00:52):
government is doing it with US passports. So you can
have the passport added to your Apple wallet, which would
be visible first on your phone, and if you wanted
it to be, it could also be on your Apple
Watch and you can use that to scan in by tapping,
and it can verify that you are who you say
you are. Now you can use this for domestic flights.

(01:13):
You can't use it for international or for crossing a
land border. But you could use it at retail, so
the next time they card you when buying beer, you
could use your digital ID and otherwise. You know, that's
kind of what it's for, being that it's in the
Apple wallet system. It's using the same type of randomizing
codes that are used with the credit cards and debit

(01:35):
cards and whatnot. So it's a way of keeping it secure.
But you cannot fully get rid of your actual ID
because if you do get pulled over, the cop is
going to want to see your real ID, not want
to scan your phone.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
So law enforcement hasn't jumped on board with US, but
a lot of other agencies have. And you talk about
passports being available on there, how long before law enforcement
is going to be on board and how many states
are actually doing this?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
So for Apple right now, if I look at it, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
fourteen states so far okay. So, because when you go
to add it, it asks you which state you want
to add or do you want to add the US passport?
So yeah, and I can see right here, Alabama's not
in there. Neither is Florida from where I'm calling from. Actually,

(02:21):
I should correct myself. It's thirteen states plus Puerto Rico.
So that's but more states could add on as as
time goes on. And again, it's just another way of
using your digital assets to make things a little bit easier.
If you're flying domestically and you're already trying to scramble
to get your carry on into the bag scanner at TSA,

(02:44):
you know, going into your wallet or your pocketbook to
get your ID is just one extra step. Chances are
you have your phone in your hand already anyway, right.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
I mean it's fused to ninety percent of Americans hands
as it is now, so I mean it's right there constantly.
I guess you know they can think it just is,
you know, put a QR code on there to verify it.
I know a lot of IDs have the water mark
on the print of the actual document or license, so
technically you could, you know, if it doesn't QR code

(03:14):
match the way it's supposed to, and it's scanned.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
It's not going to QR. It's not going to QR
code with it's going to use the In this case
with Apple Wallet, it's going to use the randomizing codes
that are also used every time you would use it
to make a payment. Let's say you're paying for something
at a restaurant or at a store, at the grocery store,
or whatever the case is, so same kind of technology
where those codes are randomized and they're verified at the

(03:40):
point of scan, and then they're randomized again afterwards, and
they're not reused. So it's hard to hack it or
to somehow clone it. And in the meantime it provides
the you know, the way of verifying your identity.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah, I like it. How long has this been out there?
Is it just the fact that it's so new that
not every states had an opportunity to jump on, or
some states fat and flat out said no, we're not
doing this.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Google Wallet's been doing it for quite some time. Apple
Wallet added the functionality last week. It's something that Apple
users have been asking for for a long time. There
have been states that have been doing digital IDs through
their own standalone apps for a while. Florida tried one,
it didn't quite work well, so they pulled it. But
generally this is more than a fad. It's a trend,

(04:26):
and it's probably moving further and further in the direction
of normalizing digital ID.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
So Android's been doing the Google thing. Apple can you,
So you can't if you're an iPhone person, you can't
use the Google digital ID, or you.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Can't using Google Wallet you can, but this is actually
the innate native Apple wallet.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, I mean, would you do it? I kind of
like the idea. I can't think of a reason not to.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
I already have I put my passport on there just
when I was testing it out, and it's actually pretty simple.
It wants you to take a photo of the past
sports photo page. Your passport has a chip in it,
and it wants you to scan the chip, and then
it asks you to take a couple of live photos
of yourself moving your head this way or that way,
and it uses that to verify that you are in

(05:13):
fact the same person who's in the passport. And then
once it's done with that, it tells you that it's
ready and it appears in your wallet, and then you
have the ability on the watch app on the phone
to then send the ID to your watch as well,
your Apple Watch, so you can have it there as well.
And you can. I haven't had I haven't had a

(05:34):
chance to or need to use my passport and anything
here in the past week, but you know, maybe I will,
So we'll see.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Now. I gotta like it pretty good, Evan Brown, thank
you for the update, buddy. I appreciate you