“Apple will expand the iPhone’s NFC chip reading capabilities before the end of 2019 so that it can be used to read data stored in security chips like those used in passports, according to comments made by the UK government,” NFC World reports.
“The UK Home Office has been in talks with Apple to extend the capability of the NFC chip to reading passports so that a smartphone app used to verify the identity of EU citizens applying to continue to live in the UK after it leaves the EU can be used on iPhones,” NFC World reports. “The iPhone’s NFC functionality is currently restricted so that it is only able to read NDEF data, so the UK government has been unable to make its EU Exit app available to EU citizens with an iPhone.”
“The EU Exit: ID Document Check app remotely checks a resident’s identity by verifying the chip in their passport or identity card, scanning their details and adding the information to their application,” NFC World reports. “Face recognition is used to verify their identity and check that the document belongs to the applicant.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Notee: Late last month, The Guardian‘s Lisa O’Carroll reported:
Sajid Javid has announced that the controversial Brexit app for EU citizens’ residency rights will finally work on iPhones.
The home secretary has struck a deal with Apple a year after the Home Office was ridiculed for developing an app that only fully worked on Android phones, even though iPhones account for 48% of the market… “I’m pleased to confirm that Apple will be making the necessary changes and the app will be working on their mobile and tablet devices by the end of the year,” he said.
The government launched the new app last year in a series of tests but it quickly emerged that the ID verification element did not work on iPhones.
The Home Office was heavily criticised after officials suggested that EU citizens could “borrow someone else’s phone”.
Javid’s announcement comes as the government rolls out the registration process for EU citizens who are settled in the country or who want to settle in the country after Brexit.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Geez, gov. officials must be myopic Android and Windows PC users living in the past.
Disagree. Apple has deliberately locked down the NFC hardware for all but the most simple uses, thereby stopping technically possible apps from being created. If you want to get a solution into the hands of people, do you wait until the laggard provider eventually lets you write an app that uses the hardware? I fully understand the earlier Android release.
With many developers eager to use the NFC hardware for all sorts of cool stuff, it would be untenable for Apple to ignore them, save for the occasional winners it picks from time to time. I’m already pretty sure Apple will unveil some sort of NFCKit at the next WWDC.
Not required, UK won’t leave.
Agree with coxorange,
Odds are a second public vote will be required and, unlike the first vote, this time the public will vote to REMAIN in the EU.
Follow the BREXIT news on BBC and you realize what a clusterfk the Tories have made of the whole thing, from start to finish, and they are just about done for. Thank God!
True, but only because voting to leave won’t be on the voting paper. Remainers are making sure that it’s just going to be a choice between a version of the Maybot deal and staying in the EU – neither of which the majority voted for.
Will England leave the EU? I do not think so. But it does not matter, the big companies like Appel, Samsung and other global brand should make safe policy so that whatever the decision is the company does not suffer any things. But for small company like us, it is not easy to void such problems. I am also I tech business. I have a small server hosting company, here is the address if you ever want to visit https://revenueserver.com/ssd-vps.html. My company is doing pretty well now, but I am also wondering how my business can affect by Brexit.