The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles is planning to offer mobile driver’s licenses to Hoosiers.

A mobile driver’s license, or MDL, is a digital version of a physically issued license. The digital ID would be available in an app or the wallet of someone’s phone.

During the Interim Study Committee on Roads and Transportation at the Indiana Statehouse on Wednesday, Matt Kestian, General Counsel for the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, said an MDL on a person’s phone is just another way for someone to verify that they are who they say they are.

“There would be liveness checking and biometrics,” said Kestian. “The phone would confirm that the data that’s in the phone is consistent with the information on file with the BMV.”

What the MDL is not, according to Kestian, is a photograph or an image of someone’s driver’s license on their phone. It’s also not something that will give law enforcement access to someone’s phone.

“The MDL system is designed to not be able to be tracked,” Kestian added. “A law enforcement agency will not be able to send a subpoena to the BMV and ask for a list of a person’s purchases or visits to various establishments.”

Physical plastic cards will remain fully valid and optional when the digital version launches. Kestian believes the BMV will have a mobile driver’s license available for Hoosiers within the next 18 months.

“There isn’t really anywhere in Indiana where a person can use an MDL today, but, we believe if we build this MDL, they will come,” said Kestian.

21 other states have mobile driver’s licenses for their residents, including Arizona, California, Illinois, and Ohio.