Biometrics developers dance with data privacy regulations continues

Biometrics controversy and investments are often found side by side, as seen in many of this week’s top stories on Biometric Update. Clearview AI has a biometric data privacy class action settlement which makes plaintiffs investors, an investigation into Worldcoin in Kenya wraps up, and the EU may bring back its facial analysis lie detector for border management. Generative AI is going to drive $40 billion in fraud just a few years from now, according to Deloitte, and DuckDuckGoose has closed an early million-dollar funding round to combat the threat. Meanwhile Mühlbauer and partners are ready to issue Bulgaria’s new ID card, and IDloop introduces its new contactless fingerprint scanner.

Top biometrics news of the week

Clearview AI has reached an unusual settlement agreement with plaintiffs in a consolidated biometric data privacy class action, offering a 23 percent stake in the company. A third party gave Clearview a $225 million valuation earlier this year, according to court documents, but the company did not have enough cash to pay compensation, plaintiff’s lawyers say. The deal got the initial sign-off from Northern District of Illinois Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on Friday, according to the Associated Press.

Honesty recognition is not a biometric modality, but the EU is reported to be considering implementing an AI lie detector along the lines of the previously-piloted iBorderCtrl at its borders as part of its EES and ETIAS controls. EU MP Patrick Breyer dismisses the idea as pseudoscience that will not work. Meanwhile the EES mobile app, belatedly approved, will not be able to capture the facial images needed by the expected launch of EES on October 6.

A trial of CCTV cameras loaded with AI software for object and emotion recognition and demographic data collection from Amazon is ongoing at eight UK train stations. The intent is to enable officers to intervene to preempt conflicts and emergencies, but like lie detection algorithms, the technology has many sceptics.

New South Wales is pouring over $21 million Australian into its decentralized digital identity ecosystem, following the success of last year’s tests for face biometrics and liveness detection in the Service NSW app. Next steps for the system include a digital first aid certificate, and other investments in the state budget will fund a transition to online licensing and fraud prevention.

Kenya has set aside $117 million to advance its national digital ID system and services over the next year. The government hopes to cut service wait times, and plans to issue 7.5 million ID cards next year, 6.3 million birth certificates and 1.5 million biometric passports.

Bulgaria has launched new digital ID cards with embedded fingerprint and face biometrics, which qualifies them as travel documents for travel within the European Union. The new cards, which are optional are designed and made by Mühlbauer and consortium partners, and will eventually be used to access digital services.

A discussion about in-person payment innovations by Mastercard representatives locates biometrics and smartphone-based transactions just ahead on the company’s roadmap. The conversation touched on consumer trust, how use encourages further adoption, and how behavioral biometrics fit with physical modalities. A deal for Idex and a launch on a rail line in Japan show that the same plans are taking root in other parts of the ecosystem.

Generative AI fraud will cost the economy $40 billion a year by 2027, according to Deloitte, while a heist of $11 million from an OKX crypto exchange account using deepfakes to defeat face biometrics checks shows the extent of the problem today. DuckDuckGoose has raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding to strengthen its position in the market for protection against fraud carried out with generative AI and deepfakes.

An agreement between Five Eyes nations that originally limited data sharing to 3,000 annual fingerprint biometric searches each has ballooned to 400,000. New Zealand, Australia, the U.S., Canada and the UK have shared little information publicly about how the program works, and oversight appears to be scant.

Worldcoin is deploying its iris biometrics orbs to Ecuador, and creating a regional hub for Latin America in Argentina. Worldcoin’s global expansion is also getting a boost from conclusions to reviews by government authorities. A Kenyan investigation is wrapping up without further action, and an order to pause operations in Portugal is weeks away from expiry.

IDloop’s contactless 3D fingerprint scanner with micron-scale resolution has reached a commercial launch. The optical scanner delivers 5 million data points, the company says, and is designed for biometric enrollment or 1:N matching in public areas with high security demands, like airports.

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Article Topics

biometrics  |  Clearview AI  |  data privacy  |  digital ID  |  identity verification  |  week in review