IDs in Wallet & Privacy

Your identity information and additional verification information you submit when adding an ID will be used by Apple and your state issuing authority to prevent fraud.
 

Identity cards in Wallet are designed to provide an easy, fast, and more secure way for people to present their driver’s license or state ID.


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  • Apple and your state issuing authority do not know when or to whom you present your driver’s license or state ID.
  • Apple does not see or store images of your ID. Apple uses only limited information from your driver’s license or state ID to prevent fraud at setup and to display your driver’s license or state ID in Wallet.
  • When presenting your ID, your device will show you the specific information requested and will not present that information without your confirmation.
  • When adding your driver’s license or state ID, your identity information and information about your Apple Account, and device use patterns and settings will be used by Apple and your state issuing authority to verify your identity and prevent fraud.
  • Additional verification information you submit when adding your ID, such as a Live Photo and recorded facial and head movements, will be used by Apple for fraud prevention for this feature and retained only until your state issuing authority authorizes or declines adding your driver’s license or state ID to Wallet.

Identity cards in Wallet provide an easy, fast, and more secure way for people to present their driver’s license or state ID.

Adding Your Identity Card

To add an identity card, you will be asked to take a picture of the front and back of your driver’s license or state ID. Your device will evaluate the quality and type of the images to help ensure that the images you provide will be accepted by your state issuing authority. Your identity card images are encrypted on device and sent to your state issuing authority, which may share them with their third-party identity verification service provider; Apple does not see or store images of your identity card. Your device will read the barcode from your identity card and share name, address, and date of birth with Apple for identity verification and fraud prevention. Apple may continue to store information about the verification outcome, such as whether the identity information was successfully verified, to help support the feature and prevent fraud on underlying Apple platforms, but will not store the underlying identity information (such as the date of birth read from your barcode).

To help ensure that the person adding the identity card to Wallet is the same person to whom the identity card belongs, you will be asked to take a Live Photo of yourself. Your device will evaluate the quality of a still frame from the Live Photo you are providing in order to help ensure that the still frame photo you provide will be accepted by your state issuing authority. This still frame from your Live Photo will be encrypted on device and sent to your state issuing authority to be compared against their image on file for the ID. Your state issuing authority will process this still frame photo in accordance with their privacy policies, which may allow them to use facial recognition technology. To help prevent fraud, before your still frame photo is submitted to your state issuing authority, your Live Photo will be evaluated by your device and Apple to help ensure that the Live Photo is of a live person, and that the same live person is submitting their still frame photo as a part of adding their driver’s license or state ID to Wallet. You may be promoted to also conduct a series of facial and head movements, which will be evaluated in the same way as your Live Photo by your device and Apple. Information about your Live Photo, or if applicable your movements, and not the Live Photo or recording of movements themselves, is stored in a way that is associated with you while you are in the process of adding your ID.

Information about your Apple account, device use patterns and settings, and information about your Live Photo, or facial and head movements, will be shared with Apple for fraud prevention. Apple will share fraud indicators based on this information with your state issuing authority for fraud prevention. Your state issuing authority, and not Apple, will decide whether to authorize adding your driver’s license or state ID to Wallet. In some cases, your state issuing authority may ask for more information or an in-person visit. Apple may receive information about the fact that your state issuing authority required additional verification and the type of verification (such as an in-person visit); Apple retains this information in a manner that is linked to you only while the state issuing authority is in the process of making a decision on whether to authorize adding your ID to Wallet for managing and improving the feature. In some cases, your state issuing authority may provide you with a verification code following their review of additional information. This verification code is encrypted on device and sent to the state issuing authority; Apple does not see or store the verification code. Your state issuing authority may provide Apple with information on the status of its authorization (for example, under review, accepted) so that Apple may send updates to your device and help manage your driver’s license or state ID in Wallet.

Once your state issuing authority authorizes adding your driver’s license or state ID to Wallet, the information reflected on your driver’s license or state ID is stored in an encrypted format that can be decrypted only using the Secure Enclave on your device. You can view this information at any time by going to Wallet, viewing the back of your identity card, tapping “Driver’s License Info” or “State ID Info” and authenticating to view details. Apple cannot see this information. To learn more about the Secure Enclave, visit support.apple.com/guide/security/secure-enclave-sec59b0b31ff/web.

To help protect your ID card from unauthorized access or presentment, you will be asked to tie your ID card to a Face ID appearance or a biometric identifier used for Touch ID. Presenting your ID or information from your ID will require authentication with the specific method and biometric identifier you tied to your ID during set up. Alternative authentication options may be available depending on your device settings. Your device, and not Apple, stores your authentication method. If you authenticated with Touch ID, you can change your tied authentication at any time by going to Wallet, viewing the back of your identity card, and tapping Replace Fingerprint. If you authenticated with Face ID and would like to change your authentication, you must delete your identity card and add it again to Wallet with the new authentication.

Presenting Your Identity Card

To present your identity card in person, hold your iPhone or Apple Watch near the identity reader to receive information about who is requesting your identity and the specific information from your identity card being requested. Upon authorization, your device will establish a direct, end-to-end encrypted channel with the identity reader and transmit the authorized information.

Apps requiring proof of age or identity to access their goods or services will present you with a consent sheet showing the specific information being requested, and how long that information will be stored by the requesting app. Upon authorization, your device will transmit an encrypted payload containing the authorized information to the app. The encrypted payload includes a digital signature from your state issuing authority unique to your identity card to allow the app to verify that your identity card is valid.

You can view past presentments, including when, where, and to whom you presented your identity card, and the specific information presented, by tapping on your identity card in Wallet. This information is generated by your device; neither Apple nor your state issuing authority know or keep a record of when, where, or to whom you present your identity card.

Managing Your Identity Card

You can manage your identity card at any time by tapping on your state ID or driver’s license in Wallet. To help protect your privacy and keep your identity card information secure, you will be asked to authenticate before you can view your identity details. To update or change your identity card information, you must contact your state issuing authority. To help manage your driver’s license or state ID in Wallet, your state issuing authority will periodically tell Apple whether your driver’s license or state ID is still valid. Apple will also receive information about any identity card updates from your state issuing authority, such as whether your address was updated or your identity card status was changed (for example, from active to inactive). Apple will not receive details about the update, such as your actual updated address. Apple will retain information about your identity card updates, such as whether your identity card status changed, while you keep an identity card in Wallet; this information will be used only for fraud prevention and security purposes.

You can delete your identity card from Wallet at any time by going to the back of your identity card in Wallet and tapping “Remove This Driver’s License” or “Remove This State ID.” Removing your identity card will delete all presentment history from your device.

Improving Identity Cards

If you have opted in to provide Apple with this information, Apple will anonymously collect your age, sex, race/ethnicity (if available), and apparent skin tone from your driver’s license or state ID, along with the state’s decision about whether to issue you an ID card for Wallet. Apple will use this information to monitor for bias in the identity verification process. You can review this information or change your consent on your iOS device by going to Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements.

Apple will not use any other information displayed on your identity card itself, such as your name or date of birth, to improve drivers’ licenses or state IDs in Wallet. Identity card data that is not linked to you may be retained to improve the feature and other Apple products and services. For example, Apple may retain anonymous and aggregate information about where users have difficulty when adding an identity card to Wallet in order to help improve the experience. Apple may also anonymize information it collects from you or receives from your state issuing authority in connection with this feature in order to improve identity cards in Wallet. For example, Apple will receive information about the quality of images submitted when adding your ID card to Wallet and whether the images were accepted by the state issuing authority. Apple may, for example, anonymize and use this information to help improve your device’s evaluation of the images to be submitted or to help provide users with better instructions on how to take images acceptable to the state issuing authorities.

Other

Apple may share information with our service providers, who are obligated to handle the information consistent with this notice and Apple instructions, are required to use reasonable security measures to protect any personal data received, and must delete the personal data as soon as they have completed the services unless retention is required by law or otherwise with your consent.

Apple retains personal data only for so long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including as described in this notice and in accordance with Apple’s Privacy Policy, or as required by law. When assessing retention periods, we first carefully examine whether it is necessary to retain the personal data collected and, if retention is required, work to retain the personal data for the shortest period permissible under law.

At all times, information collected by Apple will be treated in accordance with Apple’s Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.apple.com/privacy

Published Date: September 20, 2024