W3C pushes for revocable ID barcodes after 160 million driver’s licenses leaked

On October 7, 2026, W3C issued a press release arguing that signed barcodes on physical identity documents need a real-time “revocation switch.” The proposal follows the exposure in September 2026 of a dark web marketplace selling about 160 million digital scans of U.S. and Canadian driver’s licenses. W3C says its Verifiable Credentials Barcode specification, used with the Bitstring Status List standard, would let issuing authorities invalidate all stolen documents at once. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles has printed such barcodes on new driver’s licenses since late 2025, but the specification has not yet become an official standard.