Residents of six Brazilian states and the country’s Federal District can now generate a digital national identity card that they can store on their Apple or Android smartphone and use to verify their ID for multiple uses including accessing public services and contactless cross-border travel to other South American countries within the Mercosur region... More
iOS
Apple begins offering door locks with support for NFC digital keys
Apple has begun retailing NFC-enabled smart door locks that are compatible with its digital Home Key feature, enabling users in the USA to lock and unlock their home with a tap of their iPhone or Apple Watch using a digital key stored in Wallet... More
Austria begins rollout of digital IDs for contactless identity checking
The Austrian government is enabling residents to create and store a digital version of their driving licence on their Apple or Android smartphone as a first step towards rolling out “as many digital ID cards and documents on mobile phones as possible”... More
Polish retail chain trials biometric payments
Customers purchasing laptops, tablets, smartphones and accessories from a branch of Polish retail chain Komputronik in the city of Wroclaw can now pay for their purchases using a biometric payments system that uses a combination of iris and face recognition technology... More
Apple lets iPhone users present government-issued digital IDs in third-party apps
iPhone and Apple Watch users in the US can now verify their identity in third-party apps with their digital driving licence or state ID card stored in Wallet... More
Apple integrates transit cards with Maps in iOS 16
Apple iPhone users can now check public transport fares and add transit cards to Wallet as well as check and replenish an existing card balance directly from Maps... More
Balmain adds NFC tags to Pokémon clothing range
Luxury fashion brand Balmain Paris has added NFC tags to jackets and patches in its Balmain x Pokémon range that enable purchasers to unlock rewards and access an immersive digital experience by tapping the tag with their Apple or Android NFC smartphone... More
Greece reports on uptake of digital ID cards and driving licences
More than 710,000 Greek citizens have used the Greek government’s Gov.gr Wallet app to create and store a digital version of their national identity card on their smartphone and more than 563,000 have used it to generate a digital version of their driving licence since the service went live last month... More
Colombia to let citizens use digital ID for contactless cross-border travel in South America
Residents of Colombia will soon be able to use an updated version of their digital national identity card — known as La Cédula Digital Colombiana — stored on their Apple or Android smartphone as a passport when travelling to eight other South American countries... More
More than 34m merchants worldwide to accept contactless payments on NFC smartphones by 2027
The number of merchants worldwide using software point of sale (sPOS) solutions to accept contactless payments on an ordinary NFC smartphone or tablet will increase from 6m in 2022 to more than 34.5m by 2027, according to Juniper Research... More
France lets citizens add a digital version of their health insurance card to their smartphone
Residents across France will soon be able to download and store a digital version of their Carte Vitale health insurance card on their Apple or Android smartphone using the ApCV app currently being piloted in 10 French departments... More
Greece rolls out digital ID cards and driving licences
Greek citizens can now create, store and present digital versions of their national identity card and driving licence using a digital identity wallet on their smartphone... More
More than half a million US students add NFC digital campus card to Apple Wallet or Google Pay
More than 500,000 students at 100 higher education facilities across the USA have now added an NFC-enabled digital campus card to Apple Wallet or Google Pay on their NFC smartphone or smartwatch, according to campus card provider Transact... More
Tequila brand extends use of NFC tags for product authentication and customer engagement
US-based tequila brand Otaca is to add NFC tags that enable purchasers to authenticate their purchase, access information about the brand and place further orders by tapping the tag in the bottle cap with their Apple or Android NFC device to more than 50,000 bottles of its Reposado tequila... More
Law firm files class action against Apple on behalf of US payment card issuers over NFC chip access and service fees
US law firm Hagens Berman has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple alleging that, by preventing mobile wallets other than Apple Pay using the NFC chip in iPhone and Apple Watch to enable contactless payments, the company is in breach of federal antitrust law... More
Estée Lauder cosmetics brand Too Faced adds NFC tags to product samples
US-based cosmetics brand Too Faced has added NFC tags to 100,000 samples of its Maximum Plump lip gloss, enabling recipients to access a special landing page and register for a discount on future purchases by scanning the tag with their Apple or Android NFC smartphone... More
Transport for NSW to pilot Opal+ Mobility-as-a-Service app
Transport for NSW is to officially launch the digital version of its Opal transit card that enables passengers to pay fares by tapping a reader with their NFC smartphone or smartwatch and to begin trialling a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) app that will let users plan, book and pay for multimodal journeys across both private and public transport services... More
Clipper promotes digital transit card adoption as plastic card costs rise
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in the San Francisco Bay Area in the USA are rewarding passengers for opting for the digital version of the Clipper stored-value transit card “because global supply chain issues have depleted the inventory of plastic cards”, the MTC says... More
UK cinemas roll out support for contactless IDs
UK cinema-goers who need to verify their age in order to purchase tickets for age-restricted films can now do so using a digital ID card stored on their Android or iOS smartphone that can be authenticated using a QR code... More