House Transportation hears advocates for optional mobile driver’s licenses, emphasizes privacy and standards

The House Transportation Committee on an informational hearing discussed a proposal (House Bill 1970) to allow Pennsylvanians to obtain an optional electronic driver’s license or state ID alongside a physical card.

Jeremy Grant, coordinator for the Better Identity Coalition, told the committee that ‘‘there’s really two problems we’re trying to solve’’ in digital identity: identity proofing (establishing that a person exists and is who they claim to be) and authentication (verifying that person when they transact online or in person). He said a cryptographically signed mobile driver’s license stored in a phone’s secure wallet could let an issuer vouch for an identity without revealing unnecessary personal data.

Grant argued the change could limit large-scale identity fraud by replacing weak shared secrets such as Social Security numbers and knowledge‑based questions with device‑bound cryptographic proofs. He cited federal analyses of pandemic‑era and…