Biometric retail payments set for major push with Mastercard platform launch

A biometric retail payment platform from Mastercard is launching in Brazil with initial partner Payface, with a host of other biometrics providers lined up for subsequent rollouts, in a development with potential major impact on the market and one of the most-read stories on Biometric Update this week. Miami Airport’s biometrics deployment from NEC and SITA is expanding again, and Trust Stamp and Vsblty led a large group of biometrics providers posting major financial gains.

Top biometrics news of the week

Miami International is continuing its leadership in biometrics adoption among U.S. airports with the expansion of biometric boarding with technology supplied by SITA and NEC to all gates by the end of next year. At more than 130 gates, MIA says it will be the largest airport biometrics implementation in the country.

Mastercard is launching ‘pay by smile’ with face biometrics from Payface, an ID R&D partner, in Brazil as the first implementation of its new retail Biometric Checkout Program. The launch consists of a pilot at five supermarket locations in São Paulo. PopID, NEC, PaybyFace, Fujitsu and Aurus are other partners in the biometric retail payment scheme.

Vsblty’s 164 percent y-o-y revenue jump is impressive, but Trust Stamp’s Q1 tops it at 400 percent, as publicly traded biometrics providers reported major gains. BIO-key’s revenue increase was relatively modest, but driven by stronger recurring revenues, while Precise booked a 39 percent revenue boost. Idex, AuthID, Ping Identity and ForgeRock also provided upbeat updates.

Taiwan has added national ID numbers to its digital health passes, in an attempt to compromise with insurance companies complaining that claims could not be authenticated. The insurance industry appears largely dissatisfied, asking for the doctor diagnosing the claimant to be identified as well.

A future version of Uganda’s national ID card could include DNA biometrics, according to a government minister, prompting concerns about both cost and data privacy. Fingerprints are already collected, and ID coverage is far from complete with the current system, critics point out.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission should look into the possibility that ID.me misled the government about the kind of biometrics it provides, according to a letter from a group of Democratic Senators. The request is ostensibly in response to a reversal in public statements about 1:N facial recognition from the company’s CEO.

Aware CCO Rob Mungovan provides practical advice for businesses seeking greater security for enhanced and hybrid work environments through biometrics in a guest post. Replacing passwords with biometric authentication can benefit both companies and employees, but must be done properly.

The U.S. Government is looking into the possibility of making clothing with built-in networked sensors to collect a wide range of information about wearers and their environment. The program, shortened as ‘Smart ePants,’ is somewhat vague at this early stage on the type of data to be collected, but it includes audio and visual information.

Proposals for a tranche of $61 million in funding for the EU Digital Identity Framework, including the EU Digital Wallet, will be accepted through mid-August, the European Commission announced just ahead of the original May 17 deadline. The second set of proposals relates to digital ID wallet pilots, digital signatures and personal identity data sharing.

Digital identity verification needs to become more holistic to provide the level of fraud protection that face-to-face interactions do, IDnow Director of Document Management and Fraud Lovro Persen writes in a Biometric Update guest post. Combined with greater standardization, more detailed verifications will address the document fraud that enables identity theft.

Indonesia’s Vida raised more than $47 million to boost the digital economies of Southeast Asia with digital identity. The market is a relatively green field in market, an investor suggested, but the whole industry remains hot, with more than $200 million raised since April.

The Biometrics Institute is currently running its biometrics industry survey to help inform businesses, governments and academia on the state of the industry. Take the survey here.

The World Bank’s Mission Billion Innovation Challenge is soliciting ideas to address persistent difficulties in the Identification for Development (ID4D) agenda. A blog post checks in on the progress made by past winners Simprints and Special Olympics Nigeria.

Iris ID’s Mohammed Murad spoke to Biometric Update on the floor of IFSEC 2022 about a key partnership, multimodal applications and global expansion. The company was showing off its new Iris Bar at the event, among other biometric devices.

Please let us know of any content, whether interview, editorial or podcast, that you think we should share with the people in biometrics and digital identity, in the comments below or through social media.

Article Topics

airports  |  authentication  |  biometric sensors  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  face biometrics  |  identity verification  |  retail biometrics  |  stocks  |  week in review