Biometrics facing the challenges of industrial maturity

Facial biometrics are used in many industries in this week’s most read articles Biometric updatewhich reflects a mix of challenges and advances. Idemia plans to win a contract to install facial biometrics at South African airports, while HID previews a camera designed for the aviation industry, and Indicio’s take on DTC has executives from FaceTec, Goode Intelligence, Thales, and the World Privacy Forum examining the concept’s benefits and limitations. The ACLU is concerned about the use of facial recognition by law enforcement and security services, and the DHS’s evaluation of selfie biometrics for identity verification shows a wide range of performance, which is good news for HyperVerge.

Top biometric news of the week

An illegal identity card issuance scandal in Malta has led to a suspended sentence for a minor player and a national security risk complaint filed by a civil rights group. Fraudulent identity cards were issued to 18,000 foreigners in exchange for bribes, in what a former MP calls “the biggest corruption scandal ever recorded” in the country’s public sector.

National Public Data is an unflattering name for the company responsible for the largest exposure of Social Security numbers ever on the dark web, and likely a wave of identity theft to come. The Florida company lost personal data on hundreds of millions of people, mostly Americans, and is currently under investigation by at least two attorneys general, a joint team of congressional subcommittees, and the Justice Department.

Idemia says the cancellation of its contract to deploy facial biometrics systems at South African airports is “regrettable”, but the company says Biometric update In an email, Idemia would not contest the decision. Instead, it plans to win the same contract, this time terminated by ACSA due to a dispute with a local partner, again in a new tender.

Ethiopia is changing payment terms for biometric registration partners under its Digital ID for Inclusion and Services project to cover their additional operational costs. Partners will receive between $1.50 and $2 per verified registration, for an overall cost of $30 million to $40 million for 20 million registrations. The country is also working with the World Bank to hire four technical consultants, including a MOSIP architect, for its Fayda national ID card.

A memorandum of understanding between the Somali National Identification Authority and the banking association aims to improve financial inclusion through digital identification. The plan calls for banks to help people register their NIN, which can then be used to verify the identity of people seeking financial services, leading to better access to these services and reduced fraud and money laundering.

Zambia will receive $100 million from the World Bank to strengthen its digital public infrastructure, including an enhanced digital ID system. The country also plans to deploy MOSIP’s EET to integrate its existing biometric databases and ID systems with digital services.

The ACLU of Maryland is warning police about the limitations of facial recognition, while in Minnesota, the group says the Mall of America deployment could lead to thousands of misidentifications, despite Corsight’s testing results with NIST and DHS. The California chapter argues that state residents don’t support any government use of facial recognition.

Digital travel credentials are effective and show great promise for the specific use case they were designed for, but are not suitable for large-scale implementation, according to a panel of industry leaders Biometric updateIndicio’s argument that DTCs are “the strongest digital identity” prompted a survey of executives from FaceTec, Thales, World Privacy Forum and Goode Intelligence.

DHS S&T has released the results of its Remote Identity Verification Technology Evaluation, which measured template creation from ID documents and selfies, as well as biometric matching accuracy. Of the 16 vendors participating in RIVTD Track 2, only 10 were able to successfully complete the entire process. S&T claims they represent the state of the art. HyperVerge has lifted the veil of anonymity to claim victory as the only vendor to meet all of DHS’s criteria.

HID’s general manager of biometrics, Vito Fabbrizio, previews the company’s upcoming biometric facial camera for the aerospace industry in an email interview with Biometric updateThe Facepod features HID’s U.ARE.U multispectral camera, and the company gave a preview at ASIAL in Sydney, Australia, this week.

IDPartner has shut down, despite raising $3.1 million just over a year ago, after its bank-based digital identity network failed to attract enough joint demand. Co-founder and CEO Rod Boothby announced the decision in a LinkedIn post, describing a shared challenge in two-sided markets and the team’s accomplishments in their short time together.

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Article topics

biometrics | digital identification | digital identity | facial biometrics | week in review