New Mexico is joining states like California and Ohio in supporting digital driver’s licenses and state IDs in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. New Mexico residents are still required by law to carry their physical IDs for law enforcement and age-verification use, but at businesses and TSA checkpoints that have adopted New Mexico’s NM Verifier app, you’ll be able to tap your smartphone rather than pull out a card.
Digital licenses can be added to Apple and Google’s apps now by scanning the front and back of your physical ID, capturing a scan of your face and submitting your digital application to be verified. Once added, digital IDs can be pulled up and used in the same way you’d pay with a digital payment card. Google has published a video on how to add your card to Google Wallet and Apple has a detailed support article on how to add IDs to Apple Wallet, if you’re looking for tips.
The New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division first proposed legislation to “offer electronic credentials to customers at no additional cost” in January 2024. The rollout of digital IDs continues to be a complex process, with the TSA listing 12 states currently offering some form of digital identification, but only Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, and New Mexico currently offering IDs for both Google and Apple’s apps. To make things more confusing, some states like Ohio, Hawaii, and Iowa offer IDs for Apple Wallet but not Google’s app.
The shift to an exclusively digital wallet isn’t without potential risks, as well. The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized states’ quick adoption of digital driver’s licenses without putting in place additional protections for cardholders. Those include things like preventing ID issuers and verifiers from tracking the usage of digital cards and preserving the right to not use a digital card for anyone who doesn’t own or can’t afford a smartphone. Apple and Google’s solutions offer privacy protections in terms of encrypting information and keeping your device locked even after you’ve presented your ID, but they don’t totally account for how state or federal governments could access these new digital systems.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/new-mexico-state-ids-can-now-be-added-to-digital-wallets-211549853.html?src=rss
