Gov. Mike DeWine made the announcement during a news conference at John Glenn Columbus International Airport on Wednesday afternoon alongside officials from Apple. Businesses can now download the “Ohio Mobile ID Check” app to enable them to accept IDs via iPhones.
State officials said Wednesday that the change does not replace a physical ID and that the card still is needed for driving and during interactions with law enforcement.
But businesses can use technology that reads the Apple Wallet in instances where they need to verify someone’s age. And the Transportation Security Administration is beginning to roll it out at airports, including in Columbus and Cincinnati, officials said.
“As TSA acquires the technology it will eventually be at every airport,” Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said.
Husted said that, right now, voting is not a “use case” for the technology and that it would be up to the Ohio secretary of state’s office and state lawmakers to determine in the future if the state should accept it as a voter ID.
Users must have an iPhone 8 or newer, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system and an unexpired Ohio driver’s license to add it to an Apple Wallet. According to DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney, state officials are working on equivalent technology for users of Android devices, which they hope to roll out next year.
Tierney said bars and restaurants are, in all likelihood, not immediately equipped to begin using the “tap” technology as a means of age verification before serving alcohol. However, he said this amounts to one of several exciting ideas the private sector may conjure up.
When users add the ID to their Apple Wallets, the information is encrypted on a user’s device, so others (including Apple) can’t access it without user permission, according to a news release from DeWine’s office. User history is encrypted and stored only on the their device. Users have the opportunity to review and authorize the information being requested before sharing it.
Four other states — Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Maryland — have adopted the Apple Wallet ID system, according to Apple.
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