Mobile driver’s licenses take center stage at STA’s mDL showcase

On the surface, mobile driver’s licenses (mDL) are among the simpler technologies on offer in the biometrics and digital identity industry: a digital version of your most trusted piece of identification, housed on your mobile phone. But the basic concept belies a host of complexities in implementation, as vendors try to woo relying parties with their mDL products, governments and issuing authorities wrestle with legislation and certification, and the question of interoperability hangs over the ecosystem.

The Secure Technology Alliance’s mDL showcase, held in tandem with the Identity and Payments Summit in San Diego, California, marks a concentrated effort to get all the stakeholders in the same room, so that relying parties – who are often nervous about digital ID – can see how mDLs can work in practice through “real interactions.”

Featuring demos from companies including Thales, Daon, HID, Socure, Veridocs and sponsors Mattr and Oneproof, the showcase provides key insight into the core issues facing mDL adoption – and how vendors are working to overcome them, in order to capitalize on what could be one of the most transformational technologies of the 21st century.

Age assurance named as a growing use cases for mDLs, as adoption question hovers

The mDL tools on display span use cases from onboarding to age verification to hotel check-in. The benefits are relatively clear, at least to those in the industry: increased security and convenience, compliance with privacy regulations and greater user control over how personal information is shared.

On a UX level, many tools in the showcase feature a similar interface and workflow. A relying party requests age assurance or identity verification; the user selects a digital ID document – in this case an mDL – from their preferred wallet and are prompted to select, from a bulleted list, which bits of data will be shared. That way, someone purchasing liquor, for example, can prove their age without surrendering their address or even their date of birth; the only necessary data is whether or not a customer is old enough, and a mobile driver’s license can tell them that and nothing else.

The approaches on display, however, differ greatly under the hood. Some products leverage Bluetooth; some combine hardware and software tools; some offer open source building blocks for anyone hoping to develop an mDL solution.

Firms identify four major hurdles to mDL adoption

What truly unifies everyone in the room (at least on the vendor and issuer side) is the question of how to get more people using mDLs – and what the hurdles are. A survey of the room reveals remarkable consistency in the answers, with four major themes emerging.

The culprits, in no particular order, are governments, digital infrastructure, interoperability and education or communication. On the question of governments, Craig Cleaves, a solutions manager for identity and biometrics at Thales – on site showcasing the mDL it is developing with the state of Alaska – says state mandates are needed to catalyze adoption, especially in the area of hardware readers, in terms of getting the necessary equipment to businesses to allow them to accept mDLs. Likewise, Darren Semmel, a senior sales engineer for Daon, identifies readers and other hardware infrastructure as a hurdle.

Aila Technologies, a company that has been providing document services for airports, UPS and other entities for a decade, says it’s aiming to help fix the hardware issue with its suite of offerings, which include scanners, kiosks, software and services. The firm sees mDLs as an opportunity, but also sagely notes that physical IDs are unlikely to go extinct until older people who have used paper for their whole life do the same. Time, then, is also a key factor in mass mDL adoption.

As the mDL ecosystem grows, interoperability is crucial. An ID is only as good as the number of places that accept it, and building a system that can recognize a multiplicity of mDLs will be necessary to their appeal. Once a traveler, for instance, can use their mDL for identity verification or age assurance abroad, the case for mDLs becomes much clearer.

Indeed, clarity might be the biggest hurdle of all. Whether it’s training staff on how to use mDLs, assuring relying parties that digital ID is safe and secure, or simply explaining what the big fuss about mDLs is, communications remain stilted. Many in the room acknowledge the challenge of getting everyone on the right page about mDLs, what they do and what they don’t. As Craig Cleaves notes, anxiety about housing personal information on your phone is a bit silly, considering everything we keep on our devices, from boarding passes to payment methods. Overcoming the digital identity boogeyman remains an issue.

For its part, platinum sponsor Mattr expects to make a big splash with its announcement later in the week of a new partnership with Visa, which will see it launch the Visa Issuing Authority Authenticator (VIAA) – according to an info sheet, “a one stop, global, online service on a robust, secure global network that will allow a relying party to digitally authenticate the government authority that issued a digital identity credential.” Adding a name like Visa to the mix could have a major impact on mDL infrastructure, accessibility and trust. The announcement presages a major push by Mattr to bring its commercialized product to the U.S. mDL market.

More mDL news and insights are on the way later in the week, as the Identity and Payments Summit gets formally underway. Check Biometric Update for updates as the event progresses.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometrics  |  consumer adoption  |  digital ID  |  Identity and Payments Summit  |  interoperability  |  mDL (mobile driver's license)  |  Secure Technology Alliance