Delaware aims to be 1st with digital driver's licenses

Melissa Nann Burke | The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware is aiming to be the first state to offer virtual driver's licenses accessed through a secure smartphone app.

"We'd like to go first," said Jennifer Cohan, director of the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles and the governor's nominee for secretary of transportation.

"If it works for Delaware, then it will be a new option for Delaware citizens to show proof of driver's license and identification."

The Legislature last week adopted a resolution directing Cohan's agency to study and consider digital licenses for motorists.

Iowa, which shares a driver's license vendor with Delaware and 40 other states, is crafting a pilot program, followed by the app's rollout in 2016. The vendor, MorphoTrust USA, began working on a concept two years ago for a mobile app to carry a digital version of driver's licenses.

"It's an idea whose time has come," said Jenny Openshaw, the company's vice president for state and local sales.

"Smartphones are becoming more and more a digital wallet. Eventually, the last piece of plastic I need to carry around with me is a driver's license."

The Delaware DMV would not eliminate hard plastic licenses. Customers would have the option of having a digital version, in addition to the "hard copy" of their license, officials said.

Last year, the state began allowing motorists to show electronic proof of insurance during traffic stops. Many consumers already use smartphone-based payment systems to avoid carrying cash or credit cards.

"It's not going to get us any more bang for our buck, but it will be a convenience for our customer," Cohan said. "If our meetings go well over the next couple of weeks, it may be something we can pilot sooner, rather than later."

The app would display information typically found on a state driver's license including birthdate, name, address, signature and a photo.

It would require facial, fingerprint or voice recognition, in addition to a personal-identification code to ensure only the ID holder may gain access.

Legal and cybersecurity experts have raised concerns about privacy and data security, such as what information the apps will collect or be exchanged during transmission. The technology is also limited by the availability of cellphone service.

"Would you really want to put an app on your phone that the government wrote?" said Chase Cotton, professor of practice in the University of Delaware's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

"They're probably not going to do anything bad, but most people have a lot of private information on their phones."

That said, digital ID is likely inevitable, if for no other reason than people like the simplicity and convenience, Cotton added.

It's unclear how the technology would be accommodated at security checkpoints such as those at courthouses, where visitors cannot enter with mobile phones but might need to present ID inside.

Lewes Police Chief Jeffrey Horvath raised questions about traffic stops where the driver presents a digital license on a smartphone. What if the driver's phone has lost power? How does an officer seize the digital license after a drunken driving arrest, without taking the phone?

"If they legalize it in Iowa and Delaware and I travel to California, will the officer accept my digital license there? Would he have the equipment to scan, read it and verify it?" said Horvath, a board member of the Delaware Police Chiefs' Council.

"How do you deal with thefts? iPhones are among the most commonly stolen things."

Horvath also wondered how citizens would feel about officers taking the smartphone back to their patrol car to verify it in the state database.

Iowa envisions a corresponding mobile app for law enforcement officials' phones to would read digital driver's licenses, so the phone "never leaves your hand," said Andrea Henry, director of strategic communications for the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Iowa is working with MorphoTrust on a feature that locks the motorist's smartphone once the digital license is up on the screen, so that an officer wouldn't be able to access other content on the device, she said.

In a prototype app built by MorphoTrust, the portrait of the ID holder rotates back and forth, not unlike photos in the fictional "Harry Potter" series, said Openshaw of MorphoTrust.

"We call it the 'Harry Potter' feature," she said. "It's a technology that's very hard to duplicate, but will let the examiner know that it's authentic."

Digital credentials have the potential to be more secure than a piece of plastic in your pocket, Openshaw said, in part because it serves as a live link to one's digital identity, which is "re-verified" each time it's presented.

Cohan's agency is set to meet with MorphoTrust reps next week to discuss logistics, including questions about ensuring the secure transmission of personal data and other issues, she said.

The development process would include reaching out to stakeholders such as federal and state law enforcement and an educational component for business entities statewide, Cohan noted.

"So far, what we've seen and been working with our vendor on is very promising," Cohan said.