(NEWS CENTER Maine) — The future is here.
Since the introduction to Apple and Google Wallets, smartphone users have the ability to pay at the checkout, store their health insurance cards, passports and airline tickets with the touch of a button (or fingerprint). It was only a matter of time until our driver's licenses would get the treatment.
Enter Delaware, the first state in the country to test mobile driver’s licenses, or mDLs. For six months, the pilot study will see how they work in real-world scenarios, like going to a bar or getting pulled over by a police officer.
An officer would have the ability to ping the driver’s smartphone to request information without getting out of the car. The license would feature the driver’s photo, name, and whether they are over 18 or 21. Additional info would be available upon request, ensuring enhanced privacy.
“It could very well be that in the next few decades we won't have a bureau of motor vehicles anymore. We won't have driver's licenses anymore,” said Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap. “Things have changed so incredibly rapidly and they continue to.”
Secretary Dunlap said there have been discussions in the state about mobile driver’s licenses over the last five or six years.
“So far we haven't had a wicked big demand for it. We usually work where we have demand.”
While the demand isn’t there, the possibility is.
"We could see it now for all intents and purposes if that's what the legislature wanted us to do, we would make that sort of thing available,” Secretary Dunlap said. “The issue we would have is how would we get the digital license to the customer. And that would be a technology cost for us.”
As technology evolves, it means more information is stored in a digital space, making hacks and data breaches inevitable.
“We build our security plans around the premise of not if we get breached, but when we get breached and then how to deal with it afterward. We're not gonna whistle by the graveyard and pretend we're never going to get breached,” he said.
Still, the breach “would be quite dangerous for people, because we would have things like their medical records if they have diabetes and they need to update their medical records with us.The real id calls for scanning a certified copy of your birth certificate.”
Security concerns aside, are mobile driver's licenses right for a state like Maine with an aging demographic? Secretary Dunlap says that doesn’t matter.
"I think older people make use of these sort of things too. We can do anything. But should we? That's the question."