Notes from a town hall on Utah's State-Endorsed Digital ID (SEDI)

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These are my notes from a legislative town hall held on May 18, 2026 in the Provo City Library. Christopher Bramwell (christopherbramwell@utah.gov), the state’s Chief Privacy Officer, was the presenter. The official website for the SEDI program is sedi.utah.gov.

Background

Digital IDs, like physical IDs (such as a driver’s license), contain pre-verified information about the ID holder that can be used to authenticate facts about that person. The difference is that digital IDs can be held in a cellphone wallet app (for example, Apple Wallet).

Lots of other states already support adding your driver license to digital wallets via a technology standard called “Mobile Driver License.” Utah was almost finished implementing this standard when the legislature decided to reverse course in SB 275 and instead roll its own version called State-Endorsed Digital ID (SEDI). The aim is to address concerns lawmakers had with the mobile driver license standard related to privacy and control.

Advantages of SEDI over Mobile Driver License

• Puts the government more squarely in charge of:
  • Development of the standard
  • Supporting IT infrastructure (the Utah government will run its own data center)
• Legal protections around the IDs. For example, it creates:
  • Legal penalties for digital wallet providers who use a state ID to track a user.
  • A “Duty of Loyalty”: an entity that accepts SEDI is required to respect individual rights and use personal data only for legitimate, disclosed purposes.
• Ability to issue IDs to people who don’t qualify for driver licenses.
• Selective verification (e.g. you only need to disclose your age to buy alcohol, not all the rest of the info on your license).

These advantages appear to be understood by people outside the state. For example, the major civil liberties organizations have historically been against all forms of digital ID. But the ACLU is saying that SB 275 (which introduces SEDI) is “The Nation’s Strongest Digital Identity Bill.” They still found some shortcomings, but Bramwell believes they can be easily addressed and that there’s a possibility Utah’s approach might even become endorsed by the ACLU.

Where will SEDIs be accepted?

Initially, the state is aiming to have SEDI accepted in four contexts:

• Schools
• Financial institutions
• Alcohol and tobacco sellers
• Law enforcement (just like a digital driver license)

They would love to see support expand beyond those four to include all businesses, and have incentivized this by making SEDI legally safer for businesses than other forms of digital authentication.

How do you get one?

Getting a digital ID will involve visiting a government office to verify yourself using the usual methods. The aim is to make sure that something is available within a few miles of all Utah residents. A few possibilities that were mentioned:

• DMV
• Post Office
• Maybe schools

Whether there will be a cost to obtain a digital ID is under discussion.

Do you have to get one?

No. The state has established a “right to paper,” which means anyone who accepts a digital ID is required to also accept a physical ID. Incentivizing the use of a digital ID instead of a physical ID is also not allowed.