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IOS

iOS 15.1 Beta Lets Users Add COVID Vaccination Card To Wallet App (macrumors.com) 87

Posted by BeauHD from the COVID-passport dept.
The iOS 15.1 beta that was introduced today allows iPhone users to upload their COVID-19 vaccination status to the Health app and then generate a vaccination card in Apple Wallet. MacRumors reports: The Apple Wallet vaccination card can be shown to businesses, venues, restaurants, and more that are requiring vaccines for entry. As outlined in an announcement to developers, verifiable health records are based on the SMART Health Cards specification. California is using SMART Health Cards, so users in California can add their vaccination records to the Wallet app after installing iOS 15.1. Other states and health organizations that use the SMART Health Cards will be able to use a button to let users know that they can download and store their vaccination information in the Health app and in the Wallet app.

California, Louisiana, New York, Virginia, Hawaii, and some Maryland counties support Smart Health Cards, as do Walmart, Sam's Club, and CVS Health. So those in the specific supported states should be able to look up their information in state databases, but those who were vaccinated through companies like Walmart and CVS will also be able to add their information to the Health and Wallet apps because it's the same system.
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iOS 15.1 Beta Lets Users Add COVID Vaccination Card To Wallet App More

iOS 15.1 Beta Lets Users Add COVID Vaccination Card To Wallet App

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  • Implying that showing a vaccination card to enter anything where people are, as something permanent.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Ostracus ( 1354233 )

      Just remember who's actions brought us to this point.

      • Just remember who's actions brought us to this point.

        We wouldn’t need the nanny state shit if people would just put on their grownup pants and get their shot(s). Freedom has never meant freedom from being a responsible member of society.

        • "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." -- John Milton

        • Preach it brother.

        • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

          by DrXym ( 126579 )
          It's sad that it has to come to this but sometimes the state has to intervene for the common good. Because people can be selfish morons and they are clogging up hospitals bringing them to the point that care is being rationed. Innocent people are dying because ER rooms can't find them an ICU bed when they present with a stroke or heart attack. All thanks to these assholes.

          So mandates happen to bring the vaccination rate up - vaccinate or lose your job, vaccinate or it will be a pain in the ass to travel,

          • So give every adult coming in with COVID and no vaccine "comfort care." Snow them with morphine (morphine is cheap) to make them comfortable, let them live or die in the hallway. Triage.

          • sometimes the state has to intervene for the common good.

            Is there something — anything — in your book, that is not justified by the "Common Good"?

            I expect insurers will also whack the unvaccinated with huge premiums

            Would you expect the same for the, for example, transsexuals — people surgically or even just chemically mutilated in the vain hope of changing their sex (which Mammals are incapable of doing)? Not only are these procedures costly themselves, they invite life-long elevated risks [nbcnews.com]

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by DrXym ( 126579 )

              Is there something — anything — in your book, that is not justified by the "Common Good"?

              Yes. What a stupid question. Maybe you believe in the slippery slope fallacy, I don't.

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by mi ( 197448 )

                Maybe you believe in the slippery slope fallacy, I don't.

                Slippery Slope [wikipedia.org] is not a fallacy — without the "clear bright line" between the valid and invalid applications of a rule, slipping from the former into latter is not only possible, but inevitable.

                This is why I asked you, where your line is — a question you answered only evasively... Which, I must admit, is still better than your treatment of my second question...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
        Yes! It's all ${GROUP-I-HATE}'s fault!
    • Exactly. "Papers please." If this lasts after COVID is mitigated, it needs to be met with civil unrest.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by aergern ( 127031 )

        You mean like the paperwork your parents and many other parents today have to show is in order as far as vaccines so that school can be attended?

        STOP acting as if proof of vaccination is a NEW thing. It's not. So pull up your big boy pants and just deal with it.

        Civil unrest .. indeed ... why not just beg for change at off-ramps like the crazies use to do before the internet.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          You mean like the paperwork your parents and many other parents today have to show is in order as far as vaccines so that school can be attended?

          Exactly.

          Having to provide proof of vaccination once a year to enroll a kid in school is exactly the same thing as having to show a QR code to people stationed outside of...essentially everywhere...such that you have to show it multiple times every time you leave your house. No difference there in any way at all.

          And by the way people should have to show it to vote, by mail or in person. No one wants to handle envelopes from the unvaccinated.

          And since you have to show proof of residency to get back i

        • I have no problem proving vaccination for school, work, renting an apartment, or even tax refunds. I *do* have a problem with government ID requirements to enter every indoor space, possibly multiple times per day, combined with digital scans of said IDs. This can easily be used to generate location data on a significant portion of the population. It would be extremely useful for law enforcement enforcing laws OTHER than public health rules. The goal should be to go back to the privacy status quo as far

      • Exactly. "Papers please." If this lasts after COVID is mitigated, it needs to be met with civil unrest.

        Just imagine how blown your mind will be when you need to show a ticket to go to a football game.

        The only place you're currently required to show papers are private establishments which could direct you to fuck off for nearly any reason they want. Please take your "papers please" fantasy back to your weird anti-government feverdream.

        • The ticket isn't an ID, since you could have bought it from a scalper. I have an issue with the fact that this may morph into a de-facto requirement to show ID (and have it scanned) multiple times per day, not with having to prove vaccination as such. The problem with the "private businesses" argument is that the government is requiring businesses to check in some places. Yes, I realize that this (unfortunately, since underage drinking is a victimless crime) also happens with alcohol, but there's a differ

          • The ticket isn't an ID, since you could have bought it from a scalper.

            Neither is a vaccine card which you could have also bought from a scalper.

            I have an issue with the fact that this may morph into a de-facto requirement to show ID

            And yet in places around the world where it has been *competently* adopted rather than just a stupid piece of paper, no personally identifiable information is shown. Instead it hides behind a cryptographic verification code.

            Your freedoms end where other people's being. If they demand to know who you are before you enter, then tough. This is no more of a "paper's please" moment then being required to show proof of purchase of your conc

            • COMPETENTLY! Which isn't a watchword in the USA. NY has a digital vaccine pass (Excelsior). The QR code contains full name, DOB, and last vaccine date (actually expiration date, which is last vaccine + 365 days). This is more than enough to uniquely identify most people, and this can easily be logged via a QR scanner app, since the data is presented in plain text, with a digitally signed hash to verify authenticity.

              By contrast, the Netherlands is much more concerned about digital privacy. Their pass c

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by trparky ( 846769 )
                My vaccine passport is setup where if someone scans it and they go to the URL, I get a text message on my phone confirming if I want to show my vaccination status to the third-party that scanned it.

                • Here's the problem -- whatever URL it directs the user to now "knows" that your information was requested by a certain IP, thus creating a timestamped approximate location of where you were.

                  BTW, that's NOT how most systems work, at least in the US. Most systems have a QR code containing name, DOB, expiration date, vax dates, etc in plain text, signed with a private key that only the issuing entity knows. If you scan the vaccine passport, you can log at least the name and DOB of everyone entering a given l

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by trparky ( 846769 )

                    Here's the problem -- whatever URL it directs the user to now "knows" that your information was requested by a certain IP, thus creating a timestamped approximate location of where you were.

                    Better than nothing I say.

                    • My other proposal is better than BOTH nothing and current systems, since it's secure against sharing of vaccine cards, but it also doesn't extend the surveillance state or have any use OTHER than verifying vaccination status. A secure physical ID which matches the physical characteristics of the holder, but doesn't provide any info about the holder other than vaccination status is the best of all worlds.

                      True, physical characteristics like appearance and weight change over time, but this is temporary. Righ

      • Arizona already did that . . .

        You realize this is just ONE LESS PIECE OF PAPER to keep track of, right?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      Yes because as we all know once you store something in a wallet (physical or digital) it is needed FOREVER. That is why I have expired credit cards and parking receipts from 1995 in mine because I simply can't remove them.

  • We have these big-ass QR codes that tell us about which COVID-19 vaccinations we received, where, dates, etc.

    • We have these big-ass QR codes that tell us about which COVID-19 vaccinations we received, where, dates, etc.

      Our QR codes here in MB only have your name, and your vaccinated status, yes or no. Nothing about which vaccines, where or when. That information is not necessary for verification purposes.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        We have these big-ass QR codes that tell us about which COVID-19 vaccinations we received, where, dates, etc.

        Our QR codes here in MB only have your name, and your vaccinated status, yes or no. Nothing about which vaccines, where or when. That information is not necessary for verification purposes.

        Apparently they're called SMART health cards [smarthealth.cards] and are growing to be a universal standard for health information carried in a portable well structured format.

        They carry a name and date of birth and either things like

    • China has a similar setup. QR codes are a kind of two factor system. We scan when entering and we get a reply code to show. The codes are color codes and change if we were in any areas of risk. Vaccine status is shown via a border but I assume is encoded too. You also get a vaccine card. Vaccines are attached to your phone number which is attached to We chat which can handle the scanning of QR codes and etc. Modern China loves it's QR codes though for advertising, payment, and examples like this.

    • Most countries do. The USA as one of the world's most technologically advanced countries just loves to show off how arse backwards they are.

  • Stop with the smart marketing already. I've got a 'smart' middle finger for you marketing people.

    • Just think, if you had a SMART middle finger instead your post would be on-topic!

      • Its still marketing when you name the company SMART and put it in all caps. They have to yell it at you because they are trying that hard to convince you. They have to work hard to convince you that you want the electronic Gestapo. If keeping covid out is the goal then require a test, not a fucking QR code.

        Am I so lame that I cannot handle a small, official, paper record? I don't need a fucking app for that, I especially don't need a SMART one.

        • wow it wasn't THAT humbling. yeesh

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Its still marketing when you name the company SMART and put it in all caps. They have to yell it at you because they are trying that hard to convince you. They have to work hard to convince you that you want the electronic Gestapo. If keeping covid out is the goal then require a test, not a fucking QR code.

          Am I so lame that I cannot handle a small, official, paper record? I don't need a fucking app for that, I especially don't need a SMART one.

          It's a atandard, and it can be used to contain vaccine results,

  • In Australia you can add your proof of vaccination to Apple wallet already, but it's just a static image with no QR code to verify. Anyone could fake it in Photoshop and just display a picture.
  • In Australia Iâ(TM)ve uploaded this on iOS 14 already

  • Got my shots at Safeway's Pharmacy, and they sent me an e-mail that let me load the vaccination proof to Wallet.

    I haven't had an opportunity to use it yet, but it's nice to have it there - at least I get some use from the Wallet app.

  • Android has already had this for a while. (Score:3)

    by wgoodman ( 1109297 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2021 @11:46PM (#61819605)

    I've had tmine saved in my Google wallet on my phone for a while now. Only thing I have in it. I'm surprised it took apple this long. They're usually ahead of the curve/influence the curve.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by redback ( 15527 )

      article is dumb. ios already does this. even my mum has a vaccine certificate in her apple wallet.

    • It’s already possible to add it to Apple/Google Wallet, since that’s an open format for which any agency or organization can generate items. This is talking about adding it to one’s health data as a standardized, potentially verifiable medical record.

      • The QR code from my card that is displayed in the Google Pay wallet is verifiable through the California health system.

        • Which is fine if all you need to do is show someone a QR code to get in a building, and is something Apple already supports the same as Google, but that's kinda missing the point. The wallet apps on both Android and iOS are analogous to web browsers: most of what they do is act like a dumb renderer displaying JSON content that's in a standard format, in much the same way that an HTML page will be written in a standard format, hence why they almost all work across both Android and iOS.

          But, just like web page

    • Exactly. I've had my California card in my Google Pay wallet for a couple of months already. Google even asks to put a quick-access icon on your home screen. Makes it very convenient. As usual, the media fawns over Apple's "innovations" that was done by others long before.

  • iOS already does this. Even my mum has a vaccine certificate in her Apple wallet.

  • And the stack of shit on/in the `smart` phone gets bigger and bigger. So what if it fails? The pain will be bigger,

  • USA company solves problem that USA government created for USA based people. Imagine if the government had a competent system of tracking vaccinations in the first place then you wouldn't need to rely on a single company solving problems which didn't need to be solved.

    Greetings from a country where you can use any smartphone to show your digital vaccination status.

    • The thing is Apple didn't NEED to do this. I'm still on iOS 14 and simply took a screenshot of the phone-sized card that's displayed upon request from California's system's web site and saved it to the Files app. (Or you could save it to Photos instead.) And you can take a screenshot and save it on ANY phone.

      My guess is Apple did this because they WANTED to make it marginally simpler by adding the card to the Wallet app where all of one's other cards are, especially for the less phone savvy.

      So greetings

      • So greetings back from another country where you also can use any smartphone to show your digital vaccination status.

        No, your vaccination status is a crappy screenshot of an easily fakable document rather than a cryptographically signed and verifiable digital code. Please don't compare your ability to take a photo to that of literally every other country.

        And that's before you get into fucked up debates of whether a picture of a document is as valid as a document itself.

        • The screenshot, by definition, has the exact same fidelity as the original. The QR code displayed on the screen by the official website in my phone's browser is indistinguishable from a screenshot of said QR code -- they're both displayed on the same screen! If the original QR code was signed, then so is the screenshot of the QR code. Whatever app somebody uses to verify the code when I present it to them will either work or not work exactly the same either way. I'm not sure how that's not obvious to you.

          • In several EU countries I've had the border guards asking me to show that the vaccination QR code was displayed by the actual application instead of being just a screenshot (if I tap on the code in the application, it shows the details of both vaccinations).

            • That seems unnecessary. Either the code is valid or it isn't. If it is, then showing your ID so they know you are who you claim to be (so they know the QR code is your QR code) should be all that's necessary. Even a QR code printed on paper should work.

      • The thing is Apple didn't NEED to do this. I'm still on iOS 14 and simply took a screenshot of the phone-sized card that's displayed upon request from California's system's web site and saved it to the Files app. (Or you could save it to Photos instead.) And you can take a screenshot and save it on ANY phone.

        My guess is Apple did this because they WANTED to make it marginally simpler by adding the card to the Wallet app where all of one's other cards are, especially for the less phone savvy.

        So greetings back from another country where you also can use any smartphone to show your digital vaccination status.

        Apple didn't do this to be good citizens. What do they get out of it?

        • No idea. I'm not Apple. What do they get out of allowing you to add your driver's license (which they also now do)? Sometimes features are added just to make things more appealing that ultimately may lead to more sales.

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