Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias stood before cameras Tuesday and declared a historic day.
“For anyone who’s ever left the house without their wallet,” he said, “fumbled for their ID at airport security or wished government services were just a little more modern, today changes everything.”
Giannoulias paused for dramatic effect before delivering the news. “For the first time ever, Illinoisans will be able to add their driver’s licenses or state ID to their Apple Wallet,” he said.
“This is government innovation at its best,” he went on, sounding like he was, oh, maybe running for something. He even went so far as to say that this represented “a new way to think about identity.”
That was a bit much. Certainly, Giannoulias deserves credit for pushing on with the technology that now allows Illinoisans to add their IDs to their phones and the levels of encryption are indeed impressive: the door person at the bar now can see you are over 21 years old without ogling the other information on your license. Better yet, the online ID will update in real time, unlike its physical sibling. You also will be able to use your license at TSA checkpoints at the airport, which is probably where you already store your boarding pass. Most convenient.
In many ways this looks like another nail in the coffin for the wallet, or the purse; a thick one is fast becoming a marker of age, or of Luddism. And another reminder that if and when you leave your phone at home — or God forbid, somewhere else — you are likely to be rendered dysfunctional in our brave new world. Better start carrying an extra battery.
But once prompted with a question, Giannoulias had a big caveat: You cannot use your shiny new digital driver’s license for its originally intended purpose.
Namely, driving.
If you are getting behind the wheel, you still need to pull out the physical license. So you’ll either need to keep it in your glove compartment (not ideal) or still carry that purse or wallet after all.
“That’s not gonna happen for the foreseeable future,” Giannoulias said of a scenario where officers pulls you over for speeding and you just show them your phone. “The legislation that was passed does not allow law enforcement to use it as of now.”
“No other state that has Apple Wallet allows law enforcement to use it,” he added.
That’s not entirely true — it appears that, in some cases, other states are already allowing drivers to use digital IDs during traffic stops.
Regardless, the traffic stop issue is a big caveat and one that we suspect will need more reinforcing.
Some people now are likely to think they can just pull out their phones after a traffic stop and they then will find themselves walking away with a ticket or a demand to head to the police station to show their physical licenses. So consider yourself duly warned.
“Consider it complementary for now,” Giannoulias said of the physical and digital twins, albeit nonidentical.
So the true revolution has yet to be televised. We see no reason why police officers can’t deal with digital licenses; it’s not that different from the TSA use thereof, especially since cops can look up driving and criminal records by way of inputting license numbers into their own databases. When that day comes, you really can leave your driving license in a desk drawer.
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