FB pixel

Western Australia joins national facial biometrics matching database

 

facial-recognition-database

The government of Western Australia has introduced a biometric data sharing law to allow the expansion of the country’s national facial biometrics database with information from the driver’s licenses of state residents, writes IT News.

The “Transport Legislation Amendment (Identity Matching Services) Bill 2020” was pushed forward by WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti last week. Data that will be shared includes photos, signatures, photo cards and other details included in the driver’s licenses, to be used by law enforcement.

Managed by the Department of Home Affairs, states and territories agreed to stand up the National Driver License Facial Recognition Solution (NDLFRS) in October 2017 but it is not yet in working order. In September 2019, the state of Victoria announced it would start uploading driver’s license photographs to the national database. South Australia and Tasmania have also shared their details to the database. All states are expected to upload their information by September 2021. For now, NDLFRS includes 6 million licenses.

The database will collect “biometric templates created from facial images provided by states and territories centrally,” but states will not lose control over the information provided.

According to Saffioti, facial recognition technology will be used, among other purposes, to rapidly identify victims of natural disasters, reduce crime and identity theft.

“Department of Transport customer information will be subject to strong safeguards through legally binding identity matching services documents called participation agreements, and participation access arrangements,” Saffioti said in a statement.

“These will be signed by senior representatives of other states and territories before access is granted to Department of Transport customer information.”

Once all states are on board by the end of 2021, NDLFRS will be ready for use.

The government’s suggested laws for federal facial biometrics matching system have been postponed due to privacy and transparency concerns.

Article Topics

 |   |   |   |   |   | 

Latest Biometrics News

 

Alan Goode offers insights on booming transitional IDV market on BU Podcast

Technology is transforming identity verification. According to Alan Goode of Goode Intelligence, by 2030, digital identity verification will pass traditional…

 

Share less data in more places: inching towards decentralized digital ID for travel

The travel industry is slowly shifting to a more decentralized model of digital identity. This was one of the key…

 

Clearview takes fresh legal hits over Canada class action, UK fine

Few biometrics companies have taken a bigger regulatory and legal beating than Clearview AI. It has already been a rough…

 

Mexico makes biometric identifier mandatory for all citizens

Mexico has officially introduced a digital identification system by signing a law that turned the previously optional biometric-based citizen code…

 

MOSIP highlights the UN DPI Safeguards Initiative

The United Nations’ DPI Safeguards Initiative has released 259 recommendations designed to guide regulators, advocates, donors, technology providers and governments…

 

Brazil adopts DaaS for verifiable credentials

Brazil is the latest country to adopt DPI as a Packaged Solution (DaaS) — a practical framework designed to accelerate…

Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Biometric Market Analysis

Most Viewed This Week

Featured Company

Biometrics Insight, Opinion

Digital ID In-Depth

Biometrics White Papers

Biometrics Events