Purses are out. your phone is your everything

In the summer of 1997, in the “Seinfeld” writers’ room, Mr. Feresten boldly told Jerry Seinfeld that the purses were over.

Jerry disagreed. It threw up a wallet, in which the writers opened their wallets, as “it slowly dawned on them that they were carrying this garbage everywhere, everyday,” said Emmy-nominated writer and producer of the show, Mr. Feresten, to me. Told.

The conversation eventually led to one of TV’s most iconic props: George Costanza’s bulging, exploding wallet.

Well, Mr. Feresten didn’t expect a world at all where smartphones, biometrics, ubiquitous cellular connectivity and high-tech terminals would replace piles of cards and piles of paper. But he was right: Purses are over.

Thanks to a global pandemic and our newfound collective fear of touching, well, anything, we’ve embraced contactless payment as an alternative to handing over plastic rectangles. In 2020, in-store mobile payments grew by 29%, according to research firm eMarketer, which predicts that by 2025 more than half of smartphone users will pay with their phones.

It’s not just credit cards that smartphones have popped up like Pac-Man dots. loyalty card? Walgreens, Rite Aid and many more chains have digital cards that you can load into the Android or iPhone Wallet app. membership card? I bet your gym has converted from a key fob to a phone tap. insurance card? Aetna, Cigna and others now offer digital, printable cards. transit card? Now you can tap and pay at all New York City subway stations and buses. Bart of San Francisco just added more mobile options. Vaccine card? You have options.

But the real story lies in a progression of holdouts: driver’s licenses, work IDs and other keys that have struggled to leap across the screen. Those cards, which are in the little stick-on wallet on the back of my phone, are also getting ready for their digital debut.

But do we want so much of our lives – and our personal information – tied to a battery-dependent device? Let’s identify the issues.

Driver’s license

Back in 2019, I traveled to Delaware to see how one of the nation’s first mobile driver license programs worked. It was less than ideal—it required you to download a state-partner app, then punch in a password twice until you couldn’t see it. And it didn’t work in a lot of places, including airports.

Now, there’s a new mobile driver license feature in Apple’s upcoming iOS 15, and eight states—starting with Arizona and Georgia—have already signed up. So is the Transportation Security Administration.

If your state provides it, you’ll be able to scan your physical license and add your driver’s license or state ID directly to the iPhone’s Wallet app. To verify that this is your license—and that you are you—you will be prompted to take a selfie that will be sent to the issuing state. You will also be asked to move your head and face to confirm that you are alive. Assuming everything is checked out, your ID will soon appear in the Wallet app. During this setup, you’ll also authenticate yourself using Face ID or Touch ID, so only your face or your finger can access that ID.

OK, great—but what happens when you actually need to show your license to buy a bottle of Prosecco—or when a cop pulls you over for 65 to 78? The phone doesn’t actually have a visual representation of your license. Like using Apple Pay, you hold your phone to a reader, see an on-screen prompt indicating what kind of information is being requested (name, date of birth, etc.), then authorize that information. Use Face ID or Touch ID to do this. to be sent wirelessly to the receiver.

One advantage of going digital with something like a license is that you don’t have to share all of your information with every establishment. For example, club bouncers no longer need to know your address—just your name and date of birth.

Apple says the system is built in, so you don’t have to hand your phone over to anyone — or even unlock it. Apple says that customers’ identity data is encrypted, and Apple and the issuing states do not know when or where you present your ID.

This means that any business or government agency accepting these digital licenses will need a compatible reader or terminal. A TSA spokesperson said it plans to roll out readers in select airports, beginning with the first states to adopt the feature. He said more information would be available in early 2022. Unless these receivers are everywhere, we’ll still need our physical license—and even then there may be instances where people don’t feel comfortable using the digital version.

Google hasn’t announced any state partnerships like Apple, but Android 11 also has built-in support. Fortunately, Apple and Google are using the same mobile standard for driver’s licenses, so checkpoints should only require one machine to accept both.

job id

Am I proud of the number of times I’ve had to replace a lost work badge? Possibly. But this is why workplaces are embracing the digital versions.

“Companies just want ID out. They don’t want to worry about someone coming in to pick up a card, then losing the card again, then going back to the office to pick it up,” said Dennis Mars, CEO and co-founder of Proxy. Said, which provides digital identities and keys to companies including Accenture and CloudFlare.

Executives at Mr Mars and other providers of digital-access control and management, including HID Global and Nextkey, said they have seen demand skyrocket as companies prepare for great office returns.

The solutions are fairly simple to set up. Your company works with one of the providers, you download an iPhone or Android app, and the app uses NFC or Bluetooth to unlock terminals or doors in and around your office. In some cases, Apple’s Wallet will be able to hold your virtual office key. A HID Global executive said most of its existing door terminals—of which there are several million worldwide—can support smartphone-based keys. Proxy readers do too.

Hurray for the convenience! But isn’t this just another way for our companies to track us? All the executives I spoke to assured me that digital cards are designed to collect more data than a regular physical keycard. But they’ll know it really was you, because are you sure you’re going to lend your phone to that friend who always forgets his ID? (Important.)

everything else

Apps for hotel chains now let you bypass the lobby and go straight to your room, and iOS 15 will let you add hotel keys to your Apple Wallet. The same goes for home keys, provided you have a compatible smart lock.

And then there are the car keys. BMW cars can already be unlocked with Apple’s solution; Google announced something similar coming in Android 12. Some car makers, like Tesla, have smartphone apps that let you drive even when you’re logged in.

So there you have it all, but your private jet may soon be unlocked with your phone. All your keys and IDs—as well as all your personal information, passwords and payment methods—are all stored right there in a small device. What is the probability of it going wrong?

Security is always my biggest concern, but every time I bring it up, companies tell me to think about my plastic cards. Any card I drop on the street – or even hand out at a restaurant – can be misused by any unscrupulous character. With my information encrypted and biometrically secure, on a secure device, this is very difficult. Plus, if I lose my phone, I can remotely wipe it using Apple’s Find My iPhone or Google’s Find My Device. (Make sure you have those set up!)

Then there is privacy. Are these systems collecting and sharing information behind the scenes? Like any app, check in the Settings menu to see what permissions you’ve granted. Is it reaching your location? your contacts? stop all this. (Here’s Apple’s explanation of how privacy works in the Wallet app. Here’s Google.)

And finally? Yes, the battery dies. “Sorry, officer, my license has expired,” is not going to fly. Even if smartphone batteries last longer and longer, we will continue to carry a physical license and credit card in those phone-back wallets. For a while.

My well-known futurist, Mr. Faresten, has those views as well. “They are the last gasp of the Western wallet empire,” he said. “They will fall like Rome.”