{"id":10074,"date":"2022-01-31T14:54:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T14:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1379222"},"modified":"2022-01-31T14:54:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T14:54:19","slug":"you-can-add-your-covid-vaccination-certificate-to-the-apple-wallet-but-should-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=10074","title":{"rendered":"You can add your COVID vaccination certificate to the Apple Wallet\u2026 but should you?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The modern world hurts my brain. Let\u2019s take the news that Apple <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/HT212752\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">enables users to store their COVID vaccination certificates<\/a> in the Wallet and Health apps as an example.<\/p>\n<p>When I first heard about it, I was pumped. Flashing my QR code to enter a restaurant or grab a coffee would be far simpler if it sat in my <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/topic\/apple\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple<\/a> Wallet. Friends, the time I\u2019d save!<\/p>\n<p>But, of course, the world had something to say about that.<\/p>\n<p>While putting my digital certificate of vaccination in an easy-to-access place is cool\u2026 is it safe?&nbsp;And because I <em>can<\/em> do it, does that mean I should?<\/p>\n<p>Something that seemed simple on the surface is actually a minefield. I wanted some clarity on this issue.<\/p>\n<p>While American users can do so already, it\u2019ll most likely be in April when iOS 15.4 drops that people in Europe will be able to put their corona vaccine certificates into the Apple Wallet. I wanted to know where I stood beforehand, so I got in touch with some security and privacy experts to try and make sense of it all.<\/p>\n<p>Strangely, a number declined to comment, with one of them saying the topic was a \u201chornet\u2019s nest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, John Fokker \u2014 Head of Cyber Investigations at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trellix.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Trellix<\/a> \u2014 was more than happy to talk to me and shine some much needed light on the issue.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1379234 size-full js-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix.jpg\" alt=\"NEW john fokker Head of Cyber Investigations at Trellix\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-280x158.jpg 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-240x135.jpg 240w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-480x270.jpg 480w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-796x448.jpg 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-1200x675.jpg 1200w\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/should-you-add-corona-vaccination-certificate-apple-wallet-iphone-analysis#\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Feditorial.thenextweb.com%2Fplugged%2F2022%2F01%2F31%2Fshould-you-add-corona-vaccination-certificate-apple-wallet-iphone-analysis%2F&amp;via=thenextweb&amp;related=thenextweb&amp;text=Check out this picture on: This is John Fokker himself. Bless his heart for all he has done.\" data-title=\"Share This is John Fokker himself. Bless his heart for all he has done. on Twitter\" data-width=\"685\" data-height=\"500\" class=\"post-image-share popitup\" title=\"Share This is John Fokker himself. Bless his heart for all he has done. on Twitter\"><i class=\"icon icon--inline icon--twitter--dark\"><\/i><\/a>This is John Fokker himself. Bless his heart for all he has done.<\/figcaption><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1379234 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix.jpg\" alt=\"NEW john fokker Head of Cyber Investigations at Trellix\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-280x158.jpg 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-240x135.jpg 240w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-480x270.jpg 480w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-796x448.jpg 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/01\/NEW-john-fokker-Head-of-Cyber-Investigations-at-Trellix-1200x675.jpg 1200w\"><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p>When I asked Fokker about the potential downsides of adding a COVID-19 vaccination certificate to the Apple Wallet, he explained the major issue was about handing over personal health data from a \u201cgovernment controlled platform to a private entity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While there are obviously increased usability benefits to such a move, he pointed out that users should be aware of the service\u2019s terms and conditions while uploading this sort of data.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, it\u2019s not Apple that can access your data, third-party apps can be given permissions to access information on the Health and Wallet apps.<\/p>\n<p>To counter this, Fokker advised digital mindfulness. He told me users had to be \u201cmore aware of their own health data\u201d and be \u201cbe diligent with giving permission to [the] third-party apps\u201d trying to access it.<\/p>\n<p>Wise advice all around.<\/p>\n<h2>The digital driver\u2019s license debate<\/h2>\n<p>Last year, a similar discussion arose over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/newsroom\/2021\/09\/apple-announces-first-states-to-adopt-drivers-licenses-and-state-ids-in-wallet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Apple\u2019s announcement<\/a> to allow users to import their driver\u2019s license to the Wallet app. There was substantial backlash over the move, leading to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/11\/23\/22799338\/apple-digital-driver-license-delay-2022-ios-15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">the feature being delayed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/report\/identity-crisis-what-digital-drivers-licenses-could-mean-privacy-equity-and-freedom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">released a report<\/a> saying that digital driver\u2019s licenses would make showing ID more convenient, \u201cand thus easier to ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On top of this, the ACLU pointed towards digital IDs allowing more \u201ccentralized tracking\u201d and, in a worst case scenario, could lead to online activities being tied to \u201cverified, real-world identities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, a digital ID sitting in the Apple Wallet could be a privacy nightmare. So, is there a chance similar things could happen with vaccination QR codes?<\/p>\n<h2>Looking on the bright side<\/h2>\n<p>To answer the question above, yes and no \u2014 with the emphasis on the latter.<\/p>\n<p>A vaccination certificate is substantially different to a driver\u2019s license \u2014 it needs to be used <em>alongside&nbsp;<\/em>ID in order for it to be effective. Alone, it proves little.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, a digital corona vaccination certificate sitting in the Apple Wallet has some potential benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Fokker told me such a move could lead to a \u201cmore unified approach to development and security standardization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Currently, vaccine apps that generate the QR code are the responsibility of separate governments, each with \u201ctheir own budget and security requirements.\u201d Moving to a platform like the Apple Wallet app could negate this.<\/p>\n<p>In the long term, Fokker told me, one could argue that&nbsp;moving to a platform like this could be safer and more beneficial for the average user.<\/p>\n<h2>COVID vaccine certificates in the Apple Wallet app: not a huge concern<\/h2>\n<p>To put it bluntly: there are no obvious dangers of moving your vaccine certificate to the Apple Wallet. This does come with a large caveat though, as this is only true if you tightly control&nbsp;what apps can access your data.<\/p>\n<p>In this way, vaccination certificates differ from digital IDs. The majority of the former are digital by nature, while the most common forms of identification (driver\u2019s licenses and passports) are paper-based. Digitizing them opens a huge and wriggling can of worms \u2014 while the vaccine pass system could actually benefit from being incorporated into the Apple Wallet.<\/p>\n<p>So, there you have it! A little bit of respite before the modern world messes with our heads again.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/should-you-add-corona-vaccination-certificate-apple-wallet-iphone-analysis\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The modern world hurts my brain. Let\u2019s take the news that Apple enables users to store their COVID vaccination certificates in the Wallet and Health apps as an example. When I first&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}