National digital ID launches lead to biometrics contract opportunities in Sri Lanka, Jamaica
Major biometrics contracts in the public sector dominated headlines on Biometric Update this week, with governments around the world automating processes and moving services online. Sri Lanka is about to tender contracts to Indian companies for its national digital ID, and Jamaica is seeking bids for biometric enrollment equipment. In the U.S. a Socure executive speaks for many in expressing disappointment in a lack of action, while on the other side of the world FaceTec facial recognition algorithms are being implemented for an Australia state’s digital ID system. On the private sector side, a system with iProov face biometrics to speed up international rail travel has reached official launch, and startup Bureau raised $16 million.
Top biometrics news of the week
ETIAS has published a note clarifying that applications for European travel authorization from visa-exempted countries do not involve submitting biometrics. Biometric passport numbers are part of the application, however, and the technical specifications for the ETIAS watchlist have not been released. Some observers are concerned that the confusion will discourage tourism.
SmartCheck biometric gates using iProov technology have been launched to production by Eurostar at a London rail hub. The system, which counts Entrust and apparently Inverid as partners, is expected to save both time and space, following the successful conclusion of a trial to ease congestion associated with post-Brexit passport checks.
Sri Lanka is preparing to evaluate proposals to supply and build its national digital ID system; from Indian bidders only, though PWC is on board as a consultant. The Indian government has taken on an oversight role in the project, which will utilize the MOSIP platform.
Jamaica has issued an RFP to equip ten biometric enrollment centers at post offices in the country, with more planned for future RFPs. The centers will be used for enrollment to the national digital ID, NIDS, which includes fingerprints and facial images. The first enrollment centers are already in operation.
America’s federal cybersecurity plan is a disappointment to many observers, like Socure’s Jordan Burris, for its lack of consideration to digital identity. At the same time, the Labor Department is allocating grant money to improve states’ identity verification capabilities, and also partnering with the Postal Service and GSA on in-person ID proofing.
Europe’s cybersecurity agency, meanwhile, released a report specifically on digital identity standards, which contains analysis of and recommendations for policymakers on the EU Digital Identity Wallet. Multiple ISO/IEC standards are recommended for adoption. An ad hoc group should be convened to look into EUDI Wallet vulnerabilities, ENISA says.
The government of New South Wales has engaged Mattr to build verifiable credentials into its digital wallet, and with BRYKGroup to use FaceTec biometrics and liveness detection as part of its digital ID system. The federal government, however, is taking responsibility for its digital identity policy away from the Digital Transformation Agency and given them to the Department of Finance, as the latest step in an 8-year saga.
California-based startup Bureau has scored an impressive $16 million series A funding round to fund the expansion of its share in the identity verification and risk prevention orchestration market. The company’s platform uses phone numbers to tokenize identities verified with selfie biometrics.
OpenAI is avoiding the rollout of features for its ChatGPT large language model that could be used for facial recognition or facial analysis, in deference to potential legal issues and uncertainty about what kind of comments it will make. The AI can already be used that way for public figures like those with Wikipedia pages, but similar capabilities hold significant promise in diverse applications.
Worldcoin has issued over 2 million of its digital IDs, and has accelerated World ID enrollments to more than 40,000 people a week in June. The latest in a regular drumbeat of announcements from the company credits trips with the Orb to collect iris biometrics in Barcelona, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and New York.
A bill before Massachusetts’ legislature could strike a compromise between those advocating for police to have the use of a powerful tool and some of America’s strictest municipal bans, an article in MIT Technology Review argues. The article summarizes the two sides of the debate in Massachusetts, and that debates place within a broader national reckoning with police use of facial recognition.
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