Germany Says iPhones Running iOS 13 Will Be Able to Read NFC Tags in National ID Cards and Passports

[1909]

Sorry guys, just a question on this: some article reports that even if iphone 6s will run IOS13, the NFC just in this model still won't be "open", for istance, to the feature in this article. Do you know if there is some official source about it?

 

[chucker23n1]

Sorry guys, just a question on this: some article reports that even if iphone 6s will run IOS13, the NFC just in this model still won't be "open", for istance, to the feature in this article. Do you know if there is some official source about it?

That sounds right. Core NFC requires iPhone 7, so these new additions probably do as well.

 

[1909]

That sounds right. Core NFC requires iPhone 7, so these new additions probably do as well.

Thanks!

 

[dfgddikf]

Finally. The government has been pushing the NFC capabilities of our ID cards for nearly a decade but you needed to buy a hardware reader and of course nobody did. This is a long overdue and very welcome development!

You don't need a hardware reader. It works with any Android phone for years. I have a Samsung J5 from 2015 which can read my nPA. I can login to Elster with it on my Notebook. The J5 just needs to be in thesame WLAN. Totally easy and well thought out.

 

[Tech198]

Did hell freeze over?

in Gemany ? possibly.

 

[Val-kyrie]

Pickpockets and thugs have been a real threat for at least several centuries. Unlike safeguards against digital identity theft via NFC (a.k.a. tin foil wrapping), only very few people could (and can) afford safeguards against physical theft (including, but not limited to identity).

Besides - your "real threat for at least two decades" claim is (more than) slightly exaggerated: First norming drafts for NFC have been published in 2002, if Wikipedia is to be believed. Consumer products have probably not been available until ten years ago, perhaps even less. So even if _scanners_ have been available for longer, they could not be classified as "threat" if there was nothing they could have been stolen in the first place.

In the early to mid-2000s, my bank required me to accept a card with NFC to continue using certain services. I declined and changed banks after showing them how a person with a laptop and $20 in off-the-shelf hardware could sniff and extract the bank card information.

 

[daveak]

"reached a deal with Apple to make its Brexit app for EU citizens' residency rights work on iPhones via the NFC chip"

No they haven't, iOS just happens to allow access, this isn't anything special the pathetic government here as persuaded Apple to do. Apple have opened up access to that type of NFC tag. Simple as that. If you have a dev license you can write an app to read all the data from your passport yourself. No special deals done at all.

 

[Neodym]

In the early to mid-2000s, my bank required me to accept a card with NFC to continue using certain services. I declined and changed banks after showing them how a person with a laptop and $20 in off-the-shelf hardware could sniff and extract the bank card information.

As I said: Wrap your NFC card in tin foil and that ominous person can sniff as much as he wants - he won’t get the information. If style is important, there are lots of protection solutions available at the market - from single card cases to full-blown wallets - that also block the signal, making it impossible to be sniffed.

In theory you may have a problem there, but in real life the threat of being physically robbed is as high, if not higher. And it’s very easy to protect yourself against sniffing - unlike protecting yourself against robbery.

 

[unfunfionn]

You don't need a hardware reader. It works with any Android phone for years. I have a Samsung J5 from 2015 which can read my nPA. I can login to Elster with it on my Notebook. The J5 just needs to be in thesame WLAN. Totally easy and well thought out.

Hmm we have a few Android phones lying around at home and none of them are compatible. The Play Store reviews have a LOT of people reporting the same issue.