Security News > 2021 > September > Digital State IDs Start Rollouts Despite Privacy Concerns

Apple has unveiled the first eight states that will roll out digital IDs and drivers licenses on its mobile devices, despite critics' concerns that the introduction of purely digital forms of identification will raise privacy, security and equanimity issues.

To assuage security fears that come with storing people's identity on its devices, Apple is asserting that state DLs and IDs stored in Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch will "Take full advantage of the privacy and security" built into the devices, the company said.

Despite these security protections, there already has been a major issue with a rollout in Iceland of digital DLs that used Apple's Wallet passes, distributed via the Passkit API for digital identities.

Although the digital signature sounds good on the surface, the report outlined "Two main problems with it" that allowed people to forge or modify their digital DLs. "First, it is sufficient to have an Apple developer account to obtain a signing certificate for wallet passes, and therefore they can be obtained by anyone," according to the report.

Privacy and individual-rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center believe that if digital IDs are not designed carefully, they could eventually lead to a scenario "In which every time we walk through a door or buy coffee, a record of the event is collected and aggregated," the EFF wrote in a blog post published in late July.

The privacy groups also pointed out that digital IDs can also lead to further marginalization of people who are already at a disadvantage in society and may not have the financial means to own a smartphone, something "That could have significant implications for equity and fairness in American life," they said in their public comments.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/digital-state-ids-rollouts-privacy/169136/