Tech5 develops biometrics checking capability to protect printed IDs against fraud

Tech5 has launched a digital security capability using biometrics to guard against the substitution or manipulation of the facial image on a printed identity document.

The new T5-FaceLink feature can be used in various scenarios to provide assurance that the document is genuine and belongs to the bearer, without requiring any special tools, according to the company announcement.

A high-density code that contains a biometric representation of the face is printed on the document, alongside the photo, with both captured to complete verification. Tech5’s software compares the two in real-time.

Despite the several levels of protection built into printed ID documents to protect against forgery and theft, Tech5 Co-founder, Chairman and CTO Rahul Parthe says that fraudulent documents with swapped photos remain a significant fraud threat.

“Inspired by the T5-Digital ID’s features and advantages and combining it with our identity market expertise, we developed T5-FaceLink to improve document security,” says Parthe. “It allows linking the photo on the document to the security feature, proving the authenticity using digital signature and additionally biometrically verifying the holder of the ID directly against the document (if required), unlocking additional verification capability for offline use cases.”

T5-FaceLink can also hold a digital signature asserting the documents legitimacy. The technology can also be added to existing ID documents to upgrade their protection against fraud without replacing them or adding an electronic chip storing the user’s biometrics.

“The protection of identity documents from photo substitution becomes more important with the increased use of ID documents in remote/unattended eKYC scenarios increasingly used by banks, telcos, enterprises, healthcare providers, and governments,” says Tech5 Strategy Advisor Rob Haslam. “We believe that T5-FaceLink is an answer to solving the fraud problem involving the use of documents with swapped photographs for both online and offline verification use cases.”

The new feature is currently being tested in several national-level identity projects in the Middle East.

Tech5’s projects in the region include remote voter identity verification in Oman.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  document verification  |  face photo  |  fraud prevention  |  identity document  |  TECH5