Apple requires states to maintain the systems needed to issue and service digital IDs at taxpayer expense, according to contracts signed by four states. The agreement, obtained through public record requests from CNBC and other sources, shows that Apple maintains a high degree of control over the government agencies responsible for issuing identification cards, with “sole discretion” for key aspects of the program.
Hugh Son and Kif Leswing for CNBC:
Apple is making U.S. states foot part of the bill and provide customer support for its plan to turn iPhones into digital identification cards, according to confidential documents obtained by CNBC.
The company requires states to maintain the systems needed to issue and service credentials, hire project managers to respond to Apple inquiries, prominently market the new feature and push for its adoption with other government agencies, all at taxpayer expense, according to contracts signed by four states…
The move has brought questions from industry observers about why local authorities are ceding control of citizens’ identities to a $2.46 trillion private corporation. Beyond that, the integration of identity into powerful mobile devices has drawn concern from privacy experts about the risk of dystopian scenarios involving surveillance.
Apple has “sole discretion” for key aspects of the program, including what types of devices will be compatible with the digital IDs, how states are required to report on the performance of the effort, and when the program is launched, according to the documents. Apple even gets to review and approve the marketing that states are required to do.
The dynamic is similar to the way Apple typically deals with vendors, although instead of getting paid by Apple, the states have to shoulder the financial burden of administering the programs, according to Jason Mikula, a fintech consultant and newsletter author who obtained some of the contracts.
“It’s like a vendor relationship, which makes no sense to me because it’s the states that have the monopoly on what they’re giving to Apple, they could presumably negotiate a much more equal contract,” Mikula said in an interview.
MacDailyNews Take: Generally, government doesn’t know how to negotiate. This is likely because it’s not their money and they believe they can always get more, so there is no real impetus for government to negotiate like a business, to which the money actually means something. A tough, seasoned negotiator like Apple will dictate terms to overmatched politicians and government employees and laugh about it later.
The best minds are not in government. If they were, business would hire them away. — Ronald Reagan
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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Elephant in the room…
Thelonius, I’ve been a fan of your posts for over a decade. Please keep it up!
Biden’s America
Not to worry, government’s best minds are working on the issue.
The equation can only be solved by balancing it on the systemic imaginary number r, where r = racism.
Biden’s closest best mind solving problems at the border…
“Apple has “sole discretion” for key aspects of the program, including what types of devices will be compatible with the digital IDs, how states are required to report on the performance of the effort, and when the program is launched”
Huh? Here we see another example of citizen’s info as a controlled and desired asset. For now, the digi-ID info is unremarkable, but out in the “wild,” clearly seen is the advocacy of digital passports that include and, some want to require, facts that govt doesn’t need and has no right to require.
Besides this, wtf is Apple becoming? We’ve experienced FB, GOOG and TWTRs ongoing parsing info that aligns with govt’s interests. Is another tech behemoth needed become another non-elected administrator (and advocate) of govt policies? Shall I start to imagine the new; AAPL-DMV and…?
It’s clearly evident that tech-autocracies are reaching a tipping point of power/control.
Love the comments. They just make my day! Looks like a lot of Karens down voting here. LMFAO!
Reagan – one of the best
Misleading headline as usual.
Apple isn’t forcing governments to pay anything. Apple is requiring the state governments who are opting in to the program to pay for and maintain the infrastructure on their side of the system. e.g. the servers and network infrastructure needed to validate and issue the IDs. This is reasonable.
Secondly, this is not Apple proprietary technology. It’s an ISO standard that any competitor can use.
Seriously. The above takes are the dumbest. I friggin’ want my state to maintain the infrastructure related to my driver’s license and other identity documents themselves and not give that over to Apple, or any other corporation for that matter. Yet all the numbnuts above are posting like it’s bad thing that Apple isn’t controlling our identity cards at their expense. And even more stupidly, the numbnuts above are mocking Joe Biden for something happening at the state, not Federal, level where the majority of governors in our are Republicans, the Governors in 3 of the 4 states mentioned in this article are Republicans and the legislatures of all four states mentioned in this article are controlled by Republicans. 🤷🏻♂️
Exactly what I thought. Managing and disseminating authority credentials is a state job.
Also, do you think that there will be no Android credentials ever?
Also, even though money is supposed to control the money, we had corporations do electronic payments. Now we have a three or four percent tax on our entire economy.
These people are the dumbest for sure.
While I understand (& agree with) your sentiment, we’re around 30 years too late: States have been contracting out “inherently governmental” functions (& databases) for decades.
Case in point, my local State’s Department of Motor Vehicles was privatized back in 1995. The State Lottery & some toll roads have been farmed out to private industry too.
Cost savings? None, really. And in the case of the DMV, their customer service sucked so bad that by 2003, their contracts were cancelled and it was restored as Govt Dept. Customer service, hours of operation, etc, have all significantly improved.
Granted, it might not be a “pleasurable” experience yet, but people used to prefer getting a root canal without Novocain vs going to the DMV, because they at least knew that for the tooth, the pain would be over in <3hrs.
Hey numbnuts, take off the partisan Republican blinders.
For simpletons to understand, this is taxpayer money used by states for Apple’s benefit.
What part do you not understand?…
So states will pay to support the system of maintaining drivers licenses as opposed to now where states pay to support the system of maintaining drivers licenses. See! It’s totally different.
“Apple isn’t forcing governments to pay anything.”
Semantics baloney.
“Apple is requiring the state governments who are opting in to the program to pay for and maintain the infrastructure”
Requiring is forcing compliance called terms of agreement. In political terms, pay to play. Lack of critical thinking skills on your part reduced to playing word games.
“This is reasonable.”
No, it is NOT reasonable because taxpayers are on the hook paying the government to perform compliance. Obviously you have not noticed, government is not a business generating one cent of income. ALL government income comes from taxpayers. Got it?…
More Apple hate from “journalists”. The taxpayers would pay the bill if the state implemented a digital ID anyway! All the facts or STFU!