Apple Introduced Digital ID in Apple Wallet
56 comments
·November 12, 2025sublimefire
There was a post from trailofbits blog recently about how passport crypto works. Kind of related here.
I wonder if this is some zero knowledge proofs here or what? Reading the passport and its chip implies some terminal authentication capabilities coming from Apple devices. Passport would not allow reading sensitive data from the chip unless the terminal is valid.
Another question is if Apple is allowed to read your biometric data?
internetter
> Reading the passport and its chip implies some terminal authentication capabilities coming from Apple devices
They’ve had some form of this for ages with Apple Pay
alberth
As an aside, I've been using TSA Touchless at select airports.
It's pretty slick.
No ID, nor Board Pass needed.
Just walk up to TSA, and only facial recognition is needed. It's extremely fast too.
BriggyDwiggs42
Now that we’ve got ice walking around with an app that uses facial recognition to determine if you’re a citizen, fuck the facial recognition stuff. This tech should be out of government hands.
SV_BubbleTime
Surely nothing nefarious has ever been promoted with the offer of convenience!
null
velomash
It’s inevitable that identification and payments continue to digitize. I’d prefer that physical ID / cash remain legally protected but that I can also go for a run with only my watch and buy a beer afterward
dmix
Indeed, it needs some hard legal protections from abuse but it will come eventually.
kkfx
No thanks. It's 2025, identity needs to be resilient, so having a national public blockchain that every public administration entity, every private who wants to participate, compensated for the IT resources they provide, whether a citizen or a business maintains well, that makes sense. The fingerprint of a key is shared, this key is on a smart-card, therefore offline, on well-known (bank cards, SIM cards) proven and reliable platforms, and signs what is needed with zk proofs where required.
Identity on mobile, proprietary platforms, whose level of complexity makes it humanly impossible to understand them even for governments themselves, notoriously closely monitored and yet with a long history of bugs and problems, is UNACCEPTABLE.
It's time to understand that IT is the nervous system of society and that public information must be public, for everyone, not for a specific actor and with no specific actor being "more equal" than others.
willio58
I’m still waiting for the day where 100% of state drivers licenses are supported in wallet and anyone requesting ID are required to accept them. Quite literally the only reason I have a wallet these days is for the drivers license.
teeray
> and anyone requesting ID are required to accept them
This is the big one. I've seen a lot of states where digital drivers licenses are issued, but many retailers are like "lol no, we want the card." It needs to be legally enshrined as identical.
mystifyingpoi
Geniuine question, why can't you just have your license in your car at all times?
risico
Same, although most of the time, at least cops, accept a photo of the actual ID card/driver license where I live (Romania), at least it worked the last time I got pulled over.
astroflection
Nope. I will continue to have a DL card so I can choose to leave my phone at home. When we are required to have our IDs on our person at all times I can at least not be tracked everywhere I go.
Be watchful for legislation requiring: * us to have our ID on our person at all times. * IDs to be issued in digital format only.
lvl155
I am against digital IDs. There’s a reason why security-minded people carry around physical hardware keys. The fact that Apple remains a black box company means I can’t trust them now and definitely not later when their changing financial circumstances COULD jeopardize management decisions and commitment to privacy.
xd1936
I am never handing my phone to a cop.
throw0101d
> I am never handing my phone to a cop.
The point is that you don't have to:
> To present a Digital ID in person, users can double-click the side button or Home button to access Apple Wallet and select Digital ID. From there, they can hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near an identity reader, review the specific information being requested, and use Face ID or Touch ID to authenticate.
"hold … near … review"
If you're (e.g.) buying alcohol, then the "specific information" would be your birthday, and that is all that would be sent over. With a regular ID, verifying your age would mean handing over your physical card which would have all sorts of other non-relevant information to the task at hand.
Further:
> Only the information needed for a transaction is presented, and the user has the opportunity to review and authorize the information being requested with Face ID or Touch ID before it is shared. Users do not need to unlock, show, or hand over their device to present their ID.
AIUI, cops would have a verifying device or app and the information requested—which you authorize—is sent over wirelessly. Kind of like how you no longer have to hand over your credit/debit cards to (possibly malicious) cashiers, and just keep it in your hand and tap. (Older people may remember the carbon copy 'ka-chunk' machines.)
With a physical ID you have to hand that over because that is the only way the information can be read off of it. With a digital ID you can send a copy of your ID without physical exchange / handover.
moralestapia
That is usually not something you choose.
dmix
Only if you're being arrested. If you're at a traffic stop or tons of other scenarios would never need to.
moralestapia
You're in Toronto. I live here as well.
Police here is relatively nice.
That's rare across the world; much worse are the kind of people you deal with when crossing borders.
bitpush
I get what you're saying, but if you think of it what we're doing today - handing over the one and only official piece of document to a) cop b) club bouncer etc.
They can hold onto it, and never return it. They can deface it. All of that is a possibilty.
You could argue, a sufficiently locked down phone is a better alternative. If they do something, you'll only lose $$
JoshTriplett
If I lose a piece of ID, I've lost a piece of paper/plastic. I'm inconvenienced, but can easily get a replacement and have the original invalidated.
barbazoo
> They can hold onto it, and never return it. They can deface it. All of that is a possibility.
But they can't potentially look at your banking app, read private notes, messages and emails, operate your home automation, look at your calendar, etc. if all they have is a plastic card.
magnetic
They can't do that either with Wallet items. That's kind of the point: you can hand over your phone with a wallet item "unlocked" and visible on the screen, and that's all they'll have access to.
null
therein
I feel exactly the opposite about what you said. The ID is just an ID, my phone is my phone with other stuff in it.
ayntkilove
... and if they hold the document upside down they can see your browser history and with a UV flashlight they can quick scan your app list for intel.
the_sleaze_
Someone recently joked about Apple holding elections on the iPhone with Face ID to verify your voting eligibility.
Hmm..
chiph
> They will also be asked to use their iPhone to read the chip embedded on the back of their passport to ensure the data’s authenticity.
I installed an RFID app from the Apple app store (3rd party, not from Apple) and it couldn't read the chip in my passport. Perhaps Apple's firmware was filtering those out at the time?
chocolatkey
I was able to use the (free) app “ReadID Me” to decode passport information months ago
phantom784
Google Wallet supports this as well, but not for passports, only select state drivers licenses.
https://support.google.com/wallet/answer/12436402?hl=en
I wonder if passports will come to Google soon as well - that'd open it up nationwide as long as you have a passport.
pxeboot
Google Wallet has supported passports for about a year now [1]. Works great at TSA. You scan it yourself. You never need to hand them your unlocked phone.
Clent
Apple also supports select state drivers license.
I would definitely expect Google to follow quickly.
pookha
Digital ID is a misnomer, it should be called "Digital Social Application". These are NOT ID"s. They're government dreamcasted app's for managing the lives of civilians.
I'm really wary of these initiatives, because perfect law enforcement is how society ossifies. Imagine if we could prosecute all homosexual tendencies when they happened, or all interracial relationships, or any other antiquated law. Society would never progress.
What happens if the government can now perfectly enforce that people under 18 can't do X or Y?