Apple not only wants your iPhone to be a phone, camera, camcorder, voice recorder, and mini-computer, it also wants it to be the place where you can securely store your personal data and make it available for others when needed. A newly filed patent application (number 202000320188) shows that the tech giant wants to allow you to even store your driver’s license on the smartphone.
In the patent filing — dubbed “controlled identify credential release — Apple says physical identity credentials, such as driver’s licenses, passports, etc., are migrating to digital form, such as digital identity credentials stored on electronic devices. As the credentials themselves change, so too will the manner in which a user provides his identity credential to a third party, such as a government official, a commercial entity, and the like.
For example, the user may wirelessly transmit their digital identity credential from their device to a wireless terminal device of a third party. Apple wants to provide a way to make this seamless and secure.
Here’s the summary of the invention: “A device for controlled identity credential release may include at least one processor configured to receive a request to release an identity credential of a user, the identity credential being stored on the device. The at least one processor may be further configured to authenticate the user associated with the identity credential.
“The at least one processor may be further configured to, responsive to the authentication, provide at least a portion of the identity credential, such as for display and/or to a terminal device over a direct wireless connection. The at least one processor may be further configured to cause the electronic device to enter a locked state and/or to remain in a locked state, responsive to providing the at least the portion of the identity credential.”
