Biometrics are getting more attention, for better and worse
Biometrics deployments are being shaped by priorities in other areas, including privacy regulation, border security, and even geopolitics in many of the most-read articles of the week on Biometric Update. Even the U.S. federal government could, potentially, act to move the market, though not likely anytime soon. A slap on the wrist for MWC, a government contract win for Idemia, and a profile of Central Asian startup Verigram and the regional potential it sees each show the influence of outside forces on the facial recognition market. Worldcoin’s digital wallet launch and an acquisition by Oura to move further into digital identity also drew readers’ interest.
Top biometrics news of the week
Rules for digital identity verification and authentication for transactions with the digital euro need to be set, so the ECB is inviting experts in the field to contribute to their development. The digital euro will be stored in the EU Digital Identity Wallet, and the Chair of the Rulebook Development Group will set up multiple ‘workstreams’ to support the rulemaking process.
Mobile World Congress has been fined €200,000 by Spain’s data protection authority for deploying face biometrics for attendee access control without performing a data protection impact assessment. The fine is relatively low because MWC did not attempt to deceive anyone about its use of the technology from ScanVis.
The chair of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has written to six of America’s biggest banks to ask if they are doing enough to protect against spoofed voice biometrics in the context of deepfakes’ increasing proliferation. Sen. Sherrod Brown is concerned that banks are marketing voice authentication as safe without warning consumers about risks, and he wants answers to a list of questions next week.
Jumio Chief of Digital Identity Philipp Pointner warns that ChatGPT and other generative AI tools are paving the way for bots, weaponized for fraud and capable of harvesting data to improve their accuracy in real-time. Liveness detection could be part of the answer, and so could identity binding with a government-issued ID document and a selfie, Pointner suggests.
TechHQ looks into the potential of biometrics to replace passwords, enlisting Mikel Sánchez of Veridas for insight into standards and testing against them. He explains for a consumer audience how voice biometrics work and describes how liveness detection technologies tell synthetic speech apart from spoken phrases.
Idemia is the winner of a major contract for border biometrics in Singapore, which will expand the deployment of the company’s contactless Automated Border Control System (ABCS) for passengers at airports and other checkpoints. Travellers can scan a QR code and their face biometrics to pass through automated checks without showing a passport.
A new standardization effort has been established to extend verifiable credentials to define a lightweight identity schema for sharing attestations between different platforms and services, Abbie Barbir and Kim Hamilton of Oasis Open write in a Biometric Update guest post. The Lightweight Verifiable Credential Schema is based on the existing W3C standard, and Barbir and Hamilton explain the work of the technical committee, inviting stakeholders to participate.
Both Visa and Mastercard have new authentication frameworks, the former just out and the latter expected in 2024, to secure payments in South Africa. Entersekt Product Manager for Payments Elizabeth Graham says the new step-up authentication systems are intended to benefit merchants while reducing payment friction.
Worldcoin and its developer Tools for Humanity have released the bare-bones World App digital wallet, with support for several cryptocurrencies as well as Worldcoin’s “proof of personhood.” The company says half a million people use the World App monthly, and 1.5 million people have downloaded it.
Biometric visas for visits to Cameroon are now being issued, with a turnaround target of 72 hours from receipt of the online application. Express visas can be issued within 24 hours, though fees have been increased to pay for the smoother service.
Oura is adding digital identity functions to its biometric smart ring through the acquisition of signal platform Proxy in an all-equity deal. The integration extends Oura’s health wearable play, the company says, but also signals plans to improve the privacy of authentications for access control applications.
Verigram is a face biometrics developer from Kazakhstan which has recently shown accuracy strides in NIST’s testing, and Co-founder Uakhat Bastimiyev tells Biometric Update in an interview that Central Asia traditionally sources facial recognition from Russia. His company sees opportunity knocking locally, with his country’s government investing heavily in digitization.
Please let us know about any interviews, editorials or other content we should share with the people who work in biometrics and the broader digital identity community, either in the comments below or through social media.
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