TruAge Age-Verified Purchasing

TruAge

TruAge® makes purchasing age-restricted products easier and safer than ever.

TruAge® FAQs

Prove Your Age. Protect Your Identity.

Want to use your mDL to buy age-restricted products like beer, wine, tobacco, vape, and more? No problem!

Activate the TruAge capability integrated with your CA DMV Wallet when you sign up for the mDL pilot. With mDL in your CA DMV Wallet, you can enroll into TruAge for age-verified product purchases. Browse the Wallet contents (icon at the bottom of the app) and visit Wallet add-ons via the “Explore Add-ons” link. Then share your TruAge QR code at checkout at select retail locations in Sacramento to safely and securely verify your age, while protecting your privacy.

If you do not activate TruAge in your mDL, you will still need your physical driver’s license or ID for age-restricted purchases. The mDL alone is not accepted at retail stores as proof of age.

TruAge® makes purchasing age-restricted products easier and safer:

  • Quickly scan and go.  No more fumbling with your wallet to find your ID.  After the cashier scans your mobile Driver’s License app, TruAge instantly confirms you’re good to go.
  • Protect your data.  TruAge only looks at what it needs to verify your age: driver’s license number, issuing state, expiration date and birthdate. TruAge never sees your other personal information.
  • Keep it private. TruAge never stores or shares personal details.  An encrypted ID token ensures that your purchases can’t be tracked or tied to your name.

Convenience Store Locations

Important Information

Continue to carry your physical driver’s license or state-issued ID card. Law enforcement, state government agencies and businesses aren’t yet accepting the mDL. If you did not enable TruAge as part of your mDL, you will still need your physical ID for any purchases or locations where proof of age is required.
The mDL is currently only authorized for use in California. Once the industry mDL standards and federal REAL ID Act standards for digital licenses are clarified, interstate use will be supported.
Usage is not tracked, and no data leaves your device without your consent. The mDL provides accurate, secure proof of identity to the businesses you interact with and lowers the potential for fraud and identity theft.

At checkout, TruAge confirms you’re old enough to make a purchase without revealing your personal information. Unlike other ID scanning systems, TruAge extracts only four out of 33+ available data points from your driver’s license to verify your age: your driver’s license number, issuing state, expiration date, and date of birth. Then, TruAge encrypts those four data points and creates anonymous digital tokens that verify you are old enough to purchase an age-restricted product.

TruAge operates in two ways:

  1. You can hand your physical ID to the cashier at checkout and they’ll scan the barcode on the back using the TruAge system. Because the cashier doesn’t need to manually enter your information and because TruAge privatizes and protects your data, this process is more secure than a traditional ID check.
  2. Alternatively, you can use your CA mDL with TruAge to scan a unique QR code directly from your phone. When a cashier scans your QR code from your phone, they’ll only see your photo and a confirmation that you’re of legal age to complete your purchase—not your name, address, date of birth, or any other personally identifiable information.

Other ID scanning systems can expose up to 33+ pieces of personally identifiable information including your full name, address, date of birth, height, weight, eye color, and so on. These systems may save or share your information with third parties, giving you little control over how or where your information is used. TruAge only extracts four pieces of information—your driver’s license number, issuing state, expiration date, and date of birth—to verify you are of legal age for purchases and then encrypts those data points as anonymous digital tokens. That means they’re never visible to the cashier or retailer, even after checkout. TruAge does not extract any other information from your driver’s license.

Initially, TruAge will be available in convenience stores, small grocery stores, and neighborhood markets. We have plans to expand into medium and large grocery stores, liquor stores, and mass retailers, as well as bars, restaurants, and concert venues. Find a participating location near you. 

We’ve selected a handful of stores to launch TruAge for the DMV mDL pilot, so access to TruAge may be limited for a while. As we expand in the back half of 2023, you can expect to see TruAge in convenience stores, grocery stores, neighborhood markets, liquor stores, and mass retailers, as well as bars, restaurants, and concert venues.

Because we don’t capture any data elements other than your driver’s license number, issuing state, expiration date, and date of birth—and even that information is secured with the creation of your anonymous TruAge digital token.

TruAge encrypts your data points and then protects them even further by creating anonymous tokens. These anonymous tokens cannot be traced back to you without legal authorization from a court-issued subpoena. Neither retailers nor cashiers retain any of the extracted information.

Never. Because we don’t store any personal information, there’s nothing to sell.

TruAge makes identity theft extremely difficult in comparison to existing proof-of-age methods. No personal information is transmitted during a purchase so there is nothing to steal.