Biometrics, electronic devices and identity credentials converging

Biometrics in electronic devices and ID documents to support digital identity are a major theme of the week’s top stories on Biometric Update, along with developments in the credentials themselves. Google is putting new fingerprint scanners with Qualcomm and Suprema technology in its flagship smartphone, and Fingerprint Cards has booked a volume order for enterprise security keys, while mobile driver’s licenses take one step forward and one step back in the U.S., the UK grapples with the possibilities of digital ID, and emerging biometric passport standards get a spotlight. Meanwhile, IDScan.net age verification features in a controversial new application.

Top biometrics news of the week

Thales Strategic Marketing Director for Digital Identity John Cullen reviews the progress of mobile driver’s licenses in the U.S. and Australia and the benefits they deliver in a guest post for Biometric Update. The privacy advantages for consumers stand out to Cullen, who predicts slow but inevitable adoption of mDLs as a more secure foundation for digital identity.

Florida’s Smart ID, mentioned by Cullen, has been discontinued, pending a new contract under different requirements. Authorities say a new version of the mDL will be ready next year.

North Carolina has established a legal basis for mDLs fully equivalent to physical ID cards, and a plan to provide a digital option by July, 2025. Meanwhile in Illinois, a proposal to launch a tender for the state’s digital ID has reached the Governor’s desk.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair weighed in on the need for digital ID to support effective immigration controls and boost the national economy as soon as the election was over. Unfortunately, a UK press corps primed for sensation conflated the call for with one for mandatory ID cards. OIX’s Nick Mothershaw reiterates the potential for user-controlled digital ID issued by regulated private sector providers.

Policy-makers and media around the world continue to struggle to separate the real and imagined risks of digital ID and biometrics. The fallacy that people with their names and facial photos freely available online have something to fear from the storage of encrypted templates is another example recently in the news.

The Tony Blair Institute has a lot of thoughts on policies the UK government should take related to AI. That includes big projections for the potential financial gains to the UK from digital ID, in the form of lower benefits fraud, improving tax procedures and efficiently targeted emergency support. One of the first changes made by the new government is expanding the DSIT to lead on digitizing government service delivery.

A cross-border digital identity pilot under the EU4Digital program was successfully completed by EU Eastern Partnership countries Armenia, Georgia and Moldova. The pilot tested interoperability for authentication across eIDAS nodes for access to foreign digital public services, and more mutual recognition initiatives are coming.

ICAO is changing the standard for biometric passports, and coverage of the second day of EAB’s recent workshop to explain the changes and the ISO standards behind them remained very popular this week.

Americans will soon be able to store their biometric passport in digital form in Google Wallet by scanning the NFC chip or a QR code. Support for other countries’ passports will follow, adding to the mobile driver’s licenses from several states, access control credentials and 170 banks that work with Google Wallet.

Google is switching to an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor from Qualcomm running Suprema algorithms as the native biometric for its Pixel 9 smartphone. The under-display capability in previous models was an optical sensor, and the new one in the upcoming model is expected to address some reported performance issues.

Fingerprint Cards has struck a deal to provide over $1 million in fingerprint sensor modules for security keys for logical access control. The mystery buyer is a FIDO-certified global enterprise biometric hardware provider, which fits with Fingerprint Cards’ strategy to support zero trust access control implementations.

Vending machines are being equipped with age verification capabilities to enable sales of age-restricted goods, with bullet vending machines in 2 U.S. states the latest example. American Rounds ammunition kiosks use IDScan.net to ID document scanning and face biometrics checks, but have faced pushback from local residents in at least one of the areas where they have been installed.

NIST has published new editions of both the FRTE 1:N and 1:1 reports in July, which present snapshots of improving accuracy among updated algorithms. The reports include first-time submissions from Indian developer Sansap Technologies in the former case and two Taiwanese developers, Taiwan Computer Vision and Telexper International, in the latter.

The full text of the AI Act has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, starting the clock for companies to meet compliance deadlines. The AI Act, officially passed in March, will come into law on August 1st.

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Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  identity management  |  week in review