Apple Says US Passport Digital IDs Are Coming To Wallet 'Soon' (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0179886240
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/10/27/2035221/apple-says-us-passport-digital-ids-are-coming-to-wallet-soon
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/27/apple-says-u-s-passport-digital-ids-are-coming-to-wallet-soon/
> The feature, previously announced as part of the iOS 26 release, comes on the heels of Apple's expansion of Wallet as more than a payment mechanism or ticket holder, but also a secure place to store a user's digital identity. Currently, support for government IDs in Apple Wallet has rolled out to 12 states and Puerto Rico, or roughly a third of U.S. license holders. However, the passport-tied Digital ID feature didn't arrive with the debut of iOS 26, as Apple said it would come in a future software update. [...]
>
> The coming launch of passport-associated Digital IDs was [2]announced on Sunday by Jennifer Bailey, VP of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, at the [3]Money 20/20 USA conference, where the exec also shared other stats about Wallet's adoption.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/27/apple-says-u-s-passport-digital-ids-are-coming-to-wallet-soon/
[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/DQTE3cQAjmN/
[3] https://url.usb.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/2AISCnGAzAhm0RKDc9fvuJ9olX?domain=us.money2020.com/
But... (Score:2)
Will they come with ads?
The real problem with this digital passport (Score:2)
Will be the [1]passport stamps [wikipedia.org] all over the glass.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport_stamp
Re: (Score:2)
Most 1st world borders don't stamp passports anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
We don't stamp passports for domestic air travel.
Re: (Score:2)
It's getting rare to get stamps for international travel too.
I recently went to Ireland and the U.K. No stamps.
Earlier this year I went to the following countries and got no stamps: Columbia, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica
Why does anyone want this (Score:1)
Do you really want to hand over your phone to a pig during a stop or a TSA goon at the airport? Get stopped for a traffic stop, you only have your ID in your phone so you have to hand over your phone to the pig so they can go write the ticket and in the 10-15min they are back in their car with your phone they are going though your messages and pictures.
Re:Why does anyone want this (Score:4, Insightful)
> Do you really want to hand over your phone to a pig during a stop or a TSA goon at the airport? Get stopped for a traffic stop, you only have your ID in your phone so you have to hand over your phone to the pig so they can go write the ticket and in the 10-15min they are back in their car with your phone they are going though your messages and pictures.
The mobile driving license standard does not require you to hand your phone over, and indeed it wouldn't help the cop if you did because he'd have to hand it right back so you could unlock before it would send any data. It delivers the data to the copy wirelessly, via NFC, BLE or Wifi, depending on the context. What's on the screen (either a QR code or nothing) does not identify you or prove your driving privileges, so it's useless to the cop, intentionally so.
I was involved in the development and standardization of the mobile driving license standard and in the process spent some time talking to cops from a few jurisdictions. Interestingly to me, the response from the cops was universal: They would strongly object to anything that would require them to touch your phone. Of course, I was talking to the higher-ups and their concern was the liability that would be incurred if a lot of their officers broke peoples' thousand-dollar phones. Individual cops might have different perspectives, but their commanders thought it was way too risky.
As for passports, IMO any useful mobile passport should work the same: No handing over of the device, indeed the protocol should ensure that the device must be in the user's hand to present the passport.
Already exist on top of the passport (Score:2)
Your passport number is all that really matters. Everything else is just for the plebes, when you interact with the TSA or other government agencies, the number gets checked against the government records which gives back a photo along with the other information. The issuing country tracks everything by that number, but that's not the end of it.
When you go abroad, they take a photo of you and your passport and put it in a database, using your country plus passport # as the real id. Now that new country
Note: TSA only, not valid at border checkpoints (Score:4, Interesting)
Someday we'll probably get an international standard for mobile passports, but it's not happening any time soon.
Until recently I worked for Google, on Android, and participated in the International Standards Organization (ISO) committee that would be tasked with defining the technical standard for mobile passports. To be clear, the ISO committee can't actually issue such a standard, passports are standardized through ICAO. But the relevant ICAO committee delegates the technical work to an ISO committee.
The current situation in those committees is that the companies who make passport booklets and passport acceptance infrastructure are successfully fending off attempts to define a standard to enable mobile passports. They have gotten a new standard (called the "Digital Travel Credential - Physical Component", DTC-PC) approved that allegedly facilitates mobile devices with passports but isn't actually usable. Apple has refused to implement it and Google isn't making any moves to support it (though someone could write an Android app that does; all of the necessary APIs are available).
One of the main sticking points is that the ICAO committee is currently specifying that any digital travel credential should not support data minimization, meaning the ability to present just a subset of the data. More precisely, they specify that data minimization is a non-goal, but since a protocol that supports retrieving and authenticating a subset of the data without leaking any of the un-presented data is always going to be a lot more complex than a protocol that sends the entire data set in a single signed blob, any technical proposal that supports data minimization will be shot down as needlessly complex.
The ICAO's position on data minimization is that the only use of travel credentials is presentation at border checkpoints, and at border checkpoints you always have to present all of the data, so data minimization support is unnecessary. The counterargument from many people is that passports are used in many contexts other than border checkpoints, and many of those other contexts don't need and therefore shouldn't get all of the data in the passport. Since both Google and Apple insist on data minimization as an essential feature, there's not much movement happening.
My guess is that it will take 2-3 years to break the current logjam on even beginning work on a real, usable standard, then another few years to define it and put it into effect, then a few years more for most border checkpoints to accept it, and perhaps a few years beyond that for people to become sufficiently confident in their mobile devices' reliability that they will travel without a paper passport booklet. So... 20 years or so.
The work with the TSA is on derived credentials that are based on your passport (and securely authenticated), using a protocol derived from the ISO 18013-5 mobile driving license standard. It does support data minimization and looks a lot like what an eventual passport protocol should look like (IMNSHO -- note that I designed big chunks of the 18013-5 standard), but will not be accepted at any border checkpoints.
Which do you think is greater? (Score:2)
Based on the comments in this discussion, which do you think is the greater number of people?
1). The number of people who did not read and/or understand the summary or article.
2). The number of people who have never traveled internationally and/or have no idea how border crossings work?
Good thing phones never run out of battery (Score:2)
On international flights. This might pose a slight problem on arrival. At the very least some delay.
If I was anything short (Score:2)
Of a multi multi-millionaire there is no way in hell I would go for this. Like if my net worth was under 100 million I would be like hell no.
We have already seen multiple cases of US citizens yanked off the street by masked goons and disappeared for days at a time. So far I believe they've all been released but realistically it's only a matter of time before they just permanently disappear.
We really are at the point where you need to start thinking about whether or not you might need to flee the cou
Re: (Score:2)
> We really are at the point where you need to start thinking about whether or not you might need to flee the country. And if that happens you want a paper passport because that increases your odds of getting out.
A paper passport doesn't increase your odds of getting out. All passports are verified electronically by the airlines and TSA. If there's a flag on your passport it doesn't matter whether it's in your phone wallet or in your hand.
Re: (Score:1)
A paper passport doesn't increase your odds of getting out.
If your passport is flagged, you can still take a real paper passport and sneak across the border into Canada or Mexico then either ask for asylum or just live like a tourist, using your passport as your ID for routine things where it won't be verified.
Re: (Score:3)
Serious question: If you really believe this, why haven't you already left the US?
Re: (Score:2)
Because a) no other country will take him, and b) even if they did, he couldn't get his favorite flavor of paint.
Re: (Score:2)
You know....it's not an "either/or" proposition. You can and must have a paper passport to get the digital one.
Re: (Score:2)
Bring in the entitled Apple users going to 3rd world countries *demanding* customs takes their phone passport. lol. It's gonna be kinda funny!
Re: (Score:1)
If you really believe any of this, you might be in a cult dude.
Don't assault Feds and you won't get "yanked off the streets". It's easy. Let the feds do their job, which is enforce immigration law passed by congress.
You're mentally ill dude. You're not the resistance, you're pumped full of online rhetoric and you're radicalized. Calm down for your own good.
Re: If I was anything short (Score:1)
I mean, he is correct about yâ(TM)allâ(TM)s ICE just black bagging random US citizens. That part looks totally accurate.