Apple wants to replace one of the most used personal documents in the world: the passport. This is what a new patent requested by the Cupertino giant reveals. The documentation was published by the United States intellectual property office this week.
According to the registry, the iPhone can be used to replace the passport and even authenticate the user. The idea is quite simple since the digital version of the document would be presented whenever requested at the main ports and airports.
What is most striking is that Apple wants to use real-time biometric identification to confirm the document’s legitimacy.
The user will only present the digital passport on the iPhone when entering another country. The authorities will be able to check the veracity of the document through biometric authentication, which can be done on the device itself.
Of course, Apple would need to work with governments to secure user authentication. Therefore, the company’s patent also lists a series of technical criteria to ensure the security of data transmission.
Since the Cupertino company has worked to assist the UK and Germany in issuing ID cards, the experience is not a problem. The vice president of Apple Pay even commented on the matter in an interview:
Identity, to be legal, has to be from the government or has to be authenticated by the government. We see many countries all over the world beginning to use their cell phones as a passport. So it’s not far from becoming a standard.
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It is worth remembering that we are talking about a patent. So it is still too early to know if this idea will ever be implemented in the real world.