FAA Reauthorization Bill Mandates Mobile ID Support

AAMVA is celebrating the passage of the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 2024—and pointing out a little-noticed but key provision in the legislation concerning mobile IDs.

When the bill passed earlier this month, it was newsworthy in part for something it lacked: An amendment that would have paused the ongoing deployment of facial recognition technology at US airports. The amendment had been proposed by Senators Jeff Merkley, John Kennedy, and Roger Marshall, who shared concerns about privacy and civil liberties issues; but a number of officials and groups, including the US Travel Association, staunchly opposed the amendment, and the Act passed without it in an 88-4 vote.

But the Act also included a noteworthy item concerning digital identity and, indirectly, biometrics. As the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) has pointed out, the legislation requires the FAA to “take such actions as may be necessary to accept, in any instance where an individual is required to submit government-issued identification to the Administrator, a digital or mobile driver’s license or identification card issued to such individual by a State.”

As AAMVA explains, the language “paves the way for widespread adoption” of mDLs and other mobile IDs.

The timing is fortuitous. AAMVA recently announced its mDL Digital Trust Service (DTS), which is designed to establish a kind of PKI infrastructure for such digital IDs across America.

In September of 2021, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published the ISO/IEC 18013-5 standard, which outlines how mDLs should operate with reader devices and includes a verified issuer certificate authority list (VICAL) for sharing legitimate public keys.

AAMVA’s DTS provides this VICAL to issuing authorities and relying parties. In other words, the DTS distributes a trusted list of public keys to issuing authorities and those who need to verify mobile driver licenses, ensuring they are legitimate and secure.

AAMVA has launched a minimally viable product (MVP) of the DTS, meaning it only has the essential features needed to function and meet its primary objectives. This allowed AAMVA to launch the DTS in order to provide immediate value and gather real-world feedback, which helps in refining and improving the product in subsequent iterations.

With a growing number of states already pursuing their own mDL programs, AAMVA’s DTS and the language in the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 2024 further set the stage for the mainstreaming of smartphone-based IDs in the US.

Source: AAMVA

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May 29, 2024 – by Alex Perala