Apple experts have filed 5 patents for security protocols that allow you to scan personal documents such as ID card through your iPhone.
Your passport or ID card may soon become digital. Not thanks to the government but through Apple. The Cupertino giant (through the intermediation of experts in the field) has recently filed five patents at the Us Patent & Trademark Office that illustrate in detail the protocols and procedures for the digitization and authentication of personal documents. The patents are all entitled “Providing Verified Claims of User Identity“. The description (as always written in a language that is bordering on comprehensible) speaks of a “device based on a system to verify identity that includes at least one processor configured to receive and verify the request and that has the information to identify the same user […] The verified request must be validated by a server based on the certification of the information by a separate provider but specifically for the device”. The text is complex but it is clear that it is about a certification mechanism to connect mobile devices to public authorities’ servers through specific protocols. The name “Apple” never appears in patent texts but hundreds of times the attached brochures and drawings refer to the Iphone, Apple Watch, HomePod or MacBook.
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Passport and ID card on Iphone
Thanks to these patents, Apple aims to expand the functionality of the “Wallet” (the function present on all Apple’s devices that allows you to make payments with Apple Pay) also including documents issued by Public Bodies. The procedure should be more or less this. The user “loads” the ID card or passport on the Iphone, the system connects to the servers of the entity that issued the document and performs authentication thanks to specific IP protocols. In this way, it will be possible to avoid lengthy bureaucracy (for example, to renew a passport) or “suspend” the validity of the document in case of loss or theft. To further protect users’ privacy, biometric controls such as face or fingerprint recognition could also be integrated. Apple’s dream is to carry ID cards and passports on iPhone, Apple Watch and Tablet. “Many countries around the world – said Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president and global payments manager – “are starting to use their smartphones as a passport vehicle. It’s not too far off, but it won’t come as quickly as others we’ve developed”.
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