China is putting ID cards on smartphones

The fear of leaving home without your smartphone is a modern anxiety that plagues many of us. That’s about to get worse for people in three Chinese cities, where the smartphone will be even more important -- because the government is rolling out an electronic identity card inside Alibaba’s payment app.

The national identity card is a vital part of life in China. The Public Security Bureau issues a physical card to every citizen at the age of 16, which lists a person’s full name, gender, ethnicity, date of birth and permanent address, together with a color photo.

Without the card, it’s virtually impossible to get a driving license, open a bank account, check into hotels, purchase high-speed train tickets, or board flights.

Now Alibaba is introducing digital IDs for smartphone users in Quzhou, Fuzhou and Hangzhou, where the company’s headquarters is located. (Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba.)

Alipay is a natural home for electronic IDs -- registering for the payment app already requires a real name and a valid identity card number. To create a digital ID, users can simply select “Web ID” under “Card Wallet” and scan their faces.

For people who use Alipay on iPhones, it uses Apple’s Face ID or Touch ID to verify their identity before showing a unique QR code that contains personal information.