Biometrics in border control, facial recognition, a lawsuit and more top stories

Here’s a recap of the most popular biometrics industry news that appeared on BiometricUpdate.com this past week.

Lawsuit

In one of the most intriguing stories this week, Hoyos Labs LLC filed a lawsuit in New York federal court against EyeVerify Inc. alleging that EyeVerify violated state and federal law by misleading consumers about how its Eyeprint ID solution identifies users.

Biometrics and elections

Turning over to biometric applications in electoral polls, GenKey announced that the Tanzanian government has deployed its biometric identification solutions for its upcoming national elections, including its Voter ID Management Solution (SPiRE), Automated Biometric Identification Solution (ABIS) for deduplication, and Adjudication solutions.

Biometrics market reports

Research analyst firms Tractica and Technavio published reports on biometrics for enterprise applications and vein recognition, respectively.

Border control

With the growing amount of terrorist and criminal activities occurring throughout the world, the implementation of biometrics in border control has never been more important. The European Union Agency for Federal Rights (FRA) conducted a survey during the summer regarding the European Agency for Large-Scale IT Systems’ (eu-LISA) pilot project on the EU’s smart borders package.

And while many would argue that the EU is significantly ahead of the U.S. in terms of having adequate biometric entry/exit border controls, the Transportation Security Administration hopes to change this with the release of an aggressive five-year strategy that includes a potential expansion of the use of biometrics, among other things, to create the “airport of the future”.

Japan’s Justice Ministry plans to install mobile biometric terminals at various airports that will capture photos and fingerprints of foreign visitors while they are waiting in line at immigration control in an effort to expedite the process.

Financial

Biometric applications in the financial sector continue to be prevalent. BMO Financial Group recently announced it has made fingerprint login available to its award-winning mobile banking app for its Canadian customers.

On the other side of the globe, Qatar bank QNB is implementing an iris recognition solution by IrisGuard at its branches and ATMs, making it the first of its kind in the country.

Law enforcement

Police officers in Keokuk, Iowa will soon implement a new digital fingerprinting system to identify suspects and criminals.

On the research end of biometrics in law enforcement, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Biometrics Center of Excellence to conduct research on contactless fingerprinting devices.

Facial recognition

NEC will open the first ever TecSec Summit on September 28 as part of The Hotel Show Dubai, held at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Their keynote will address facial recognition for hotel security.

Next, the Australian federal government will invest $18.5 million in a new law enforcement facial recognition system called the National Facial Biometric Matching Capability.

Fingerprints

In the first of two fingerprint-related stories, CrucialTec is integrating its fingerprint module, Biometric TrackPad, into Sony’s new line of Xperia Z5 smartphones.

In India, the Supreme Court is considering “right to privacy” issues in regards to cross-linking of Aadhaar and ancillary biometric registries to other government databases.

Two-factor authentication

And finally, in a special guest post, NuData Security director of customer success Ryan Wilk discussed the benefits of Two-Factor Authentication (or 2FA) and how it provides strong assurance of a biometric check.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  biometrics  |  CrucialTec  |  EU  |  eyeverify  |  FBI  |  GenKey  |  Hoyos Labs  |  NEC  |  NIST  |  NuData Security  |  TechNavio  |  Touch ID  |  Tractica  |  TSA