If a new bill brought before the Utah State Senate is passed, a pilot program that gives Utah residents the option to use a digital driver’s license will become permanent.
According to reporting by ABC4, the Chief Sponsor of the bill, Senator Lincoln Fillmore, says it’ll be a natural progression for Utahns, who already use their mobile devices for banking, healthcare, and insurance.
“Money is on our phone, your health insurance card is on your phone, your auto insurance is on your phone, this kind of just brings Utah’s technology up to par,” said Fillmore.
Joe Dougherty, a spokespersons for the Utah Department of Public Safety, noted that the year-long pilot program involved roughly 3,000 participants from across the state, and used internationally recognized ISO security standards to keep the participants’ data safe.
The new mobile option, known as mDL, is expected to be available to all Utahns later this year and will be accessed via a (paid) smartphone app that will generate a unique QR code which will allow the holder to share bits and pieces of personal data.
Dougherty also pointed out that users of the app are able to remotely authenticate their identity using either the QR code, NFC, or Bluetooth technology, adding that he trialled it “with one of our troopers and she was able to sit in her vehicle and verify my ID when I tapped ‘share by Bluetooth’.”
As noted by Fillmore, this is Utah’s latest foray into digitizing state services for its residents, with Utah being among the initial partner states that were announced in June of last year for tech giant Apple’s mobile ID project.
Source: ABC4
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