For the first time, passengers in Arizona can clear the TSA security checkpoints using their digital driver’s license or state ID on their Apple smartphone. On March 23, Phoenix Sky Harbor became the first airport to offer this option instead of physical, plastic ID cards.
Is a digital license or state ID coming to a city near you?
More than a dozen states currently utilize a digital or mobile driver’s license, including Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.
In addition, digital IDs are in development in Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Utah, Maryland, and Hawaii.
“A mobile driver’s license is really just a proxy of the regular driver’s license,” said John Gilmore, research analyst at online privacy company Abine. “The technology they’re using is simply providing a verification of what they already maintained in their motor vehicle databases.”
Is the digital license and state ID more secure than your plastic ID card?
“If that database exists in the state of Arizona, and they have all of that same information in a state database, then your individual ID is no more or less secure than it was before because all of that information can still be lost in a data breach,” Gilmore said.
Several state departments of transportation and department of motor vehicles offices were victims of ransom attacks where their data was compromised.
Government upgrades
Gilmore said the federal government is marketing digital IDs as a form of convenience, but it’s really to upgrade and streamline government systems.
“This is the best quick way to fix our general problem with authenticating citizens’ identities to deliver government services and just processing government…bureaucracy,” he said.
Privacy Concerns
Several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have raised privacy concerns about this tech upgrade.
“They’re concerned this is going to be used to identify people who may be not in good keeping with immigration law, who may be in violation of other things and this will make government’s life easier, will not make the citizen’s life easier,” Gilmore said.
