U.S. Driver's License Number

Detects U.S. driver's license number patterns. This pattern is based on a Microsoft Purview built-in sensitive information type. Users already running Purview may prefer to enable the built-in SIT directly, or use this version as a starting point for customisation.

Type

regex

Engine

universal

Confidence

medium

Confidence justification

Medium confidence: pattern has structural constraints but the wide variation across US states means corroborative keywords are strongly recommended to reduce false positive rates.

Detection quality

Verified

Jurisdictions

us

Regulations

CCPA/CPRA, State Breach Laws (US)

Frameworks

ISO 27001, ISO 27701

Data categories

pii, government-id

Scope

narrow

Risk rating

6

Platform compatibility

Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\b[A-Z]\d{7,12}\b|\b\d{7,9}\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

driver, licence, license, driving, DL, DMV, ID number, identification, ID card, permit, registration, certificate

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

• A1234567 — Letter prefix with 7 digits (e.g., Florida format)
• 123456789 — 9-digit numeric format (e.g., California format)
• B123456789012 — Letter prefix with 12 digits (e.g., Illinois format)

Should not match

• 123456 — Too few digits (6 instead of minimum 7)
• AB1234567 — Two leading letters instead of one

Known false positives

• Generic numeric sequences matching the driver's license format appearing in unrelated contexts. The broad format variation across US states increases the false positive rate. Mitigation: Require corroborative evidence keywords within the proximity window to confirm driver's license context.

References

• U.S. driver's license number entity definition - Microsoft Learn