Luz Lazo, Washington Post:

The D.C. Council on Tuesday approved a measure to give D.C. residents access to digital versions of their driver’s license or identification card on their phone.

The legislation, which passed unanimously, gives the Department of Motor Vehicles authority to issue digital credentials and lets residents present identification in an electronic format, such as on a smartphone, instead of a physical credential, except when prohibited by federal law.

Obviously, this impacts Washington DC residents, but is a testbed for digital ID everywhere. It’d make it possible to use your phone as ID for things like cashing a check, showing your ID at a bar, or when buying alcohol, buying drugs at a pharmacy, getting through security at the airport, etc.

It does seem like digital ID is an inevitable part of our future. One issue this raises: If I get stopped by the police and I don’t carry a physical ID card, I’ll have to hand my phone over to prove my identity. My hope is that the concept of an ID on the Lock Screen, with the bare minimum of information displayed, becomes a standard.

This serves the dual purpose of protecting my privacy (my phone remains locked) and providing the information required by the requestor (proof of ID for the police, my birth date only for the clerk at the liquor store).