LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A Michigan legislator in the Senate has come up with a new way for Michiganders to show their ID to anyone who needs to see it – on a cell phone with a mobile ID. Michigan Senator Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) introduced SB 459 on July 20th as a way for residents of the state to obtain mobile official state personal identification cards. Proof of insurance and registrations are currently already available electronically in the state.

According to the legislation, the bill would allow the secretary of state to upload a person’s “mobile official state personal identification card” electronically through a mobile license system if an individual requests a mobile ID. The digital IDs would have all of the same information as the regular printed IDs as well as a security feature designed to prevent tampering and counterfeiting.

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The legislation makes the digital ID voluntary – and would be valid for use for banking, police stops, state government services, ID age checks and other instances where a regular ID is required.

If the bill, which has been referred to the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, were to pass the Democratic-led House and Senate and be signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan would be one of the first states with electronic IDs. The Associated Press says there are at least five others who have implemented a mobile driver’s license program in their states.

Anthony, when she was a state representative, had introduced a similar bill in 2021. She had said at the time, “Digital forms of identification are clearly the future,” Anthony said. “This legislation is about making the lives of our constituents easier and more efficient. There’s no question that the shift to a complete digital wallet is coming. Other states are racing ahead of us on this issue. The question is, will Michigan be left behind?”

WZZM-13 in Grand Rapids asked Michigan drivers what they thought of the idea and the reactions were mostly positive. Ryan Belkhaouda said the proposal makes sense since phones are already used for payments so why not driver’s licenses.

Alicia Nuniz said, “I think it’s great as an older person that is not always knowing where my stuff is, I always have my phone. So I’d love it.” Although she did express concern about security issues that might arise if someone got ahold of someone else’s phone.

The Center for Democracy and Technology discussed mobile IDs in an April online post. They said that while the mobile state IDs could prevent fraud, they could also pose threats to privacy. They pointed out that there is no unified standards for mobile state IDs and a fragmented state-by-state approach is likely to be expensive and risky. They described the risks to privacy by saying, “The key risk is that mobile state IDs allow either governments or businesses to tie a user’s online activities to a real name and government-issued ID. This might mean that websites that require ID to access (like an age-restricted dating website) can store a list of their visitors, verified by a government ID. Or an alcohol website can keep track of every individual who purchases from them.”

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They continued to say, “Being able to track users in an identifiable way raises a number of privacy concerns by opening them up to ad targeting, data discrimination (imagine your health insurance company learning how often you purchase wine), or chilling effects where users limit their own behaviors for fear of surveillance.”