New Zealand could have mobile driver’s licenses by end of 2025

Neighboring Australia has hogged the digital headlines of late, largely through its incoming age restrictions on social media platforms. But New Zealand has been no less busy on the digitization front, recently issuing a Biometric Processing Privacy Code to regulate how organizations in New Zealand use biometric technologies to collect and process biometric information, while ploughing ahead with mobile driver’s licenses (mDL) and a national digital identity program.

According to a report from The Platform, Digital Services Minister Judith Collins says mDLs could be available to Kiwis by the end of the year. Host Leah Panapa speaks about the matter with Andy Higgs, executive director at Digital Identity NZ.

Higgs says people should be skeptical of digital credentials, because there’s a dire need to do it right. He notes that a system which links identities to a number wouldn’t fly under New Zealand’s privacy law, but understands the concerns people have.

“The big concerns with a number are one, control, you know, we don’t want to be a social credit score. And two, surveillance, right? We don’t want big brother watching us. So, we need to do it in a secure and privacy enhancing way.”

For New Zealand, that means issuing a digital credential encrypted so that it can only be viewed with a private key. Wallets are part of the picture, “but it’s not really a wallet. It’s more of an application that lets you view and then share selectively aspects of your credential with the third part of the ecosystem, which is the relying parties.”

“The whole point of this is, you don’t want the issuer knowing every time you’re using your credential, right? That’s why you need this trust triangle.” Higgs points out that “the triangle is not a loop,” gesturing to the No Phone Home campaign against server retrieval models.

Global, domestic drivers create fertile ground for digital identity

Laws and frameworks can help support. In an announcement of its major initiatives for 2025-26, Digital Identity NZ, an industry membership organization, says “there is increasing consensus that an effective, use case- and benefits-focused communication framework is crucial to market adoption.”

“The time is now for trusted decentralized identity,” it says. “Trading partners and visitors are adopting interoperable credentials, requiring NZ exporters and operators to adapt.” Domestically, banks, insurers and government agencies face mounting compliance and fraud costs. And the tech is mature: “open-standard wallets, zero-knowledge proofs, and consent dashboards are ready for safe and privacy enhancing adoption.”

On the government level, the Biometric Processing Privacy Code, adopted in August, comes into effect on November 3. Organizations already using biometric systems have until August 3, 2026 to comply with the new rules.

Commentary from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) calls the code “a major step” which “covers the life cycle of biometric information from collection, through storage and use, to destruction.”

“As we have witnessed through inquiries into the use of facial recognition technologies in both New Zealand and Australia, there is growing public concern about the use of biometric systems and their potential to infringe on privacy, introduce bias, or to be used in non-transparent ways. The code recognizes these heightened risks and provides a clear regulatory framework to ensure organizations use biometrics responsibly, transparently and with strong safeguards.”

There has been some criticism of the code from Māori groups, who say it is too loose on consent and has had its commitments to cultural practices drafted out.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  Digital Identity New Zealand (DINZ)  |  mDL (mobile driver's license)  |  New Zealand