Biometrics and privacy, banking and payments, strong authentication trending this week

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

Privacy

Matching biometric data on a device better satisfies global privacy requirements than matching it on a server, particularly with regards to personal control, and data residency, according to new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal LLP. Biometrics and Privacy: On Device vs On Server Matching was produced by PwC Legal for Nok Nok Labs to survey the privacy aspects of biometrics from an international legal perspective, focussing on the differences between one-to-one and one-to-many approaches.

A federal judge has rejected Facebook’s request to dismiss a potential class-action privacy lawsuit over the company’s facial recognition technology. U.S. District Judge James Donato denied a motion by Facebook seeking to dismiss the complaint and he also rejected Facebook’s effort to apply California law, stating in his opinion that Illinois would “suffer a complete negation of its biometric privacy protections” if he took the company’s position.

Last week the FBI proposed that its biometric database be excluded from several provisions of the U.S. Privacy Act, which states that all federal agencies must notify individuals about any records they acquire and retain regarding them. The FBI’s Next Generation Identification System (NGIS) is a database that contains the biometric data (fingerprints, eye scans, facial scans, and DNA samples) of both criminals and non-criminals in the U.S.

Banking

In a guest post, Simon Cadbury of Intelligent Environments discusses how the success of any new technology, be it a service, a product, or an entire ecosystem, is heavily influenced by its ease of use and how this onus on simplicity is driving a major shift in digital banking security through the adoption of biometric security measures. Cadbury says success will likely be measured on whether it makes the experience simpler and easier for customers whilst also fundamentally more secure.

IrisGuard recently released its EyePay point-of-sale terminal (POS) for worldwide merchants of all sizes that utilizes iris recognition as the single payment modality for purchases, without requiring a card, pin, phone or token. The device lets customers pay for goods by simply looking into the EyePay POS terminal and payments are then seamlessly executed in compliance with rigorous international banking standards.

The European Association for Biometrics (EAB) will hold its next Biometrics in Banking and Payments seminar on May 25 at Technopark in Istanbul, the main technical innovation center in Turkey. The seminar offers a range of excellent international speakers, from end users to experts involved in state of the art biometric technology advances. Participants will also learn about biometric solutions for in-branch and mobile environments and for internal and customer-facing usage.

Citigroup Inc will be the first major bank in Asia to bring voice recognition technology to its retail customers and plans to have at least one million clients in Asia using the technology within the next 12 months. Citigroup’s consumer banking head for Asia Pacific said that about 95% of Citigroup’s retail banking transactions in the region take place outside the branch network and the new technology will allow its customer service division to cut the average time it takes to validate a client’s identity to 15 seconds.

A new Special Report from Biometrics Research Group, Inc. on “Biometrics and Banking” postulates that the financial services sector has emerged as a primary end-user market for biometrics technology worldwide. In the new report, we estimate that the financial biometrics market will eventually account for almost a third of total biometrics market revenues globally by 2020. Biometrics Research Group also projects that the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 50 percent from 2016 to 2020.

Secure documents

Earlier this week, NEC announced that it is working with Unisys to provide the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with facial comparison technology at JFK airport in New York City to enhance the Air Entry process through accurate assurance of traveler identity. NEC‘s top NIST rated facial matching technology will be used to compare the image taken during the normal inspection process to the image stored on the traveler’s e-passport.

In an effort to modernize the issuance of citizen identity documents, the Republic of Moldova has selected Vision-Box to deploy an integrated biometric enrollment solution across 55 registration offices throughout the country. The solution will work with the Centre for State Information Resources infrastructure and be built upon a privacy-by-design principle while guaranteeing critical data through all stages leading to document production and safeguarding the population’s personal information.

Fingerprint technology

NEXT Biometrics has raised close to $20.3 million USD through an oversubscribed private placement, the company announced last Thursday. The funds will enable NEXT to scale its capacity to produce flexible sensors for use in smart cards. “The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used to invest in increased flexible sensor production capacity, further smart card related R&D and general corporate purposes,” said CEO Tore Etholm-Idsoe.

Fingerprint Cards (FPC) and Precise Biometrics are providing the fingerprint technology for the new Coolpad Torino S, Coolpad Note 3 Plus, 360 N4 and the Lenovo Z1 powered by ZUK smartphones. All four devices use Precise Biometrics’ algorithm solution Precise BioMatch Mobile. The Coolpad Note 3 device features Fingerprint Cards’ touch fingerprint sensor FPC1025. The Coolpad Torino S and 360 N4 features the FPC1035 sensor and the Lenovo Z1 device features the FPC1155 sensor.

Authentication

Dr. Gordon Haupt, Senior Director of Vision Technologies at Sensory spoke with BiometricUpdate.com this week about the company’s new free, easy-to-use app to secure Android devices with voice and facial recognition. The company says AppLock utilizes deep learning biometric fusion technology and liveness detection, and provides twice the security of the best fingerprint and iris sensors with near instant user verification when unlocking apps.

In a guest post, Ryan Wilk argues that physical biometrics seem like a good idea, until you realize that they can be digitally stolen and re-used fraudulently while behavioral biometrics are a secure and reliable alternative for online user authentication. Wilk says data collection is non-invasive and the data cannot be faked, creating an authentication process that reduces risk for both the company and the user.

Market research

Credence Research recently published a research report entitled “Biometrics Technology Market – Growth, Share, Opportunities, Competitive Analysis, and Forecast 2015 – 2022” which predicts that the biometrics technology market will reach $34.5 billion by 2022. The analysts also say that North America’s and Europe’s banking and financial industry will remain a lucrative market segment.

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Article Topics

authentication  |  banking  |  biometric payment system  |  biometrics  |  privacy