Driver's Licenses May Soon Be Replaced by A Smart Phone App

You might not need space in your wallet for your driver's license soon. Your I.D. could soon be replaced with a cellphone app if a pilot program involving four states and Washington, D.C. works out. The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provided a two-million-dollar grant to cybersecurity company Gemalto to design and test a digital license in a two-year pilot program. So far field trials have been conducted in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The app shows your license, front and back, just like the plastic version. However, the app also has settings that allow you to limit what's shown, depending on the situation. For example, when buying alcohol it would only show your photo and say you are of age. Germalto also plans to develop an app you can access separately from the other information on your phone so police wouldn't have access to one's full phone if you hand it over. Paul Grassi, with the NIST, says he believes most Americans will have the choice of using a digital driver's license, or sticking with the old hard copy, within the next five years. 


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