Biometrics rolling out at scale in maturing markets with next ones on horizon
Biometrics for age verification and payments, with business wins by Persona and Idex respectively, made up two of the top stories of the week on Biometric Update, but the main theme is future adoption. Password managers continue expanding the availability of passkeys and biometric authentication, digital credentials for international travel are advancing, and the EU is attempting to position digital identity wallets for mass uptake.
Top biometrics news of the week
Passkeys and biometrics are being positioned to change how users authenticate themselves to their password managers. Dashlane introducing support for third-party passkeys to users on Android 14, while Google Password Manager is adding support for fingerprint or face biometrics on Windows PCs.
Digital Travel Credential pilots are advancing, with participants describing a third type of DTC at the Secure and Seamless Contactless Biometrics session at Identity Week 2023, writes Yunus Emre Yıldırım of the EAB in a Biometric Update guest post. DTC-1 was used for flights between Finland and Croatia earlier this year.
The next steps towards implementation of the EU Digital Identity Wallet were laid out during the recent Digital Assembly 2023. The first release of the wallet is up on Github, with the EUDI architecture and technical specifications weeks away. A panel including government officials and representatives of Amadeus and Yubico discussed the tools in development, even as work continues on the legislation.
The massive MOVEit data breach included data from driver’s licenses and other ID documents issued in Louisiana, as well as students and staff of Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. Data stolen could include Social Security numbers, demographic information face photos and biometrics.
A new video surveillance system with live facial recognition has been switched on in Douala, Cameroon to help police bring down the amount of crime in the city. The 3,000-camera system also includes license plate reading and other analytics capabilities, but the country is yet to enact legislation for the protection of the data it collects.
A new age restriction for Roblox players and creators will be enforced with Persona’s biometric identity verification. There are more than 65 million daily active players of Roblox, and the company says 40 percent are 17 or older. Those who want to play more violent games, for instance, will perform age verification through selfie biometrics.
A volume order of software and sensors for biometric payment cards for Idex Biometrics will bring in roughly a third of the total revenue the company made back in 2021. The cards are expected to be issued by banks in Bangladesh, India and Turkey. Linxens and Zwipe executives separately dropped rosy forecasts biometric cards.
Neurotechnology’s iris biometrics algorithm has scored a top result in Rank1 accuracy, and high marks for both single- and two-eye matching in a NIST IREX 10 evaluation. With iris biometrics being adopted for everything from consumer electronics to financial inclusion moonshots to national identity schemes, the importance of independent testing is only increasing.
A roundtable on using Web3 technologies to build decentralized ID including Raphael do Cormis of Thales Digital Factory and Ingo Rübe of KILT Protocol highlighted the trust benefits of consortiums of large operators like banks or telecoms. Culture and geography may play important roles in adoption curves as well.
Experian VP of Applied Fraud Research & Analytics Mike Gross argues in a guest post that advances like generative AI are being used to commit sophisticated fraud which may avoid biometric account protections. He recommends bringing fraud and identity processes together among several pointers for businesses looking to protect themselves.
Happy birthday to the Secure Technology Alliance, which is celebrating 30 years of cross-industry collaboration in the U.S. to improve people’s payment cards, passports and driver’s licenses this week. The group also notes advancement in PIV cards and mDLs among its contributions.
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