Florida may start using digital drivers licenses

Forget your purse or wallet when you left your house today?

Soon, that mental slip up might not provoke the same amount of anxiety if you later notice flashing red lights behind your car.

Florida could become one of the first states to allow drivers to present electronic versions of driver’s licenses stored on cell phones as proof of identification.

Such a use would seem a natural evolution for the ubiquitous devices now commonly used as electronic wallets, ordering kiosks at restaurants and tickets for entry into concerts and sports events.

Rep. James Grant, R-Tampa, is expected to sponsor a legislative bill during this spring’s session that would authorize use of electronic credentials in situations that currently call for people to present physical versions, like during traffic stops, voting, or purchasing liquor.

Florida would join 14 other states currently developing a program, considering creating one or studying the possibility, according to figures from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

The idea isn’t to replace traditional licenses but to supplement them, proponents say. If adopted, driver’s licenses could be treated similarly to auto insurance cards. Currently, every state except New Mexico recognizes electronic copies of insurance cards, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported in late December.

Pilot states have developed protocols to ensure security of the system, including use of personal identification numbers, passwords or fingerprints to verify drivers’ rights to have their licenses on their phones.

And the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators is developing standards to enable use of digital licenses across state lines.

Privacy organizations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, are concerned about the potential for hacking and nonconsensual monitoring, according to published reports.

A bill Grant co-sponsored last year that failed to make it to the House floor specified that using a phone to present a driver’s license would not give police authority to search the phone for any other data. Other states have similar provisions, but privacy advocates worry those would be ignored.

In Florida, the next electronic driver’s license bill is likely to be packaged with a proposal to create a database enabling police to access drivers’ real-time auto insurance status.

Rep. Matt Willhite, a Palm Beach County Democrat, on Friday withdrew an auto insurance database bill he filed just days before, according to a statement released by his office Monday.

Willhite, according to spokesman Thomas Celeo, now intends to team up with Grant “to expand this concept into a larger tech package that would establish a database system that can store and create access to more information, such as electronic driver licenses.”