Biometrics adoption around the world spurred by need for digital trust

Biometrics are being used to establish digital trust in many of the most-read articles of the week on Biometric Update, from ID documents to digital public infrastructure. Thales is making Sri Lanka’s new biometric passports, software providers like Wise AI and Liquid are tackling APAC’s fraud flood, and India has announced digital ID milestones. On the other side of the same coin, Microsoft has warnings about the threat of AI-generated content, and suggestions for how to mitigate it.

Top biometrics news of the week

Thales will produce Sri Lanka’s new biometric passports, along with local partner JITT. The first 100,000 are planned for delivery within a year, but with a recent introduction of mandatory online registration for applications, lower passport issuance volumes seem likely in the interim. The Dominican Republic is about to tender the contract for its biometric passports.

Uganda is in the process of launching a new digital ID system, and the ED of the country’s identity authority says it will include ID cards for foreign residents. An “Alien Register” has long ben planned, but was delayed during a transition to technology supplied by Veridos and the Uganda Security Printing Company (USPC).

Romania is adding fingerprint and face biometrics collection to its immigration process, for both those seeking permanent residency and citizenship. The country says it is aligning its immigration system with the EU’s GDPR, while also planning to meet the criteria for the U.S. Visa Waiver Program.

Vietnam’s “Project 06” digital transformation plan is progressing with digital identity at its center, and biometrics adoption is up with the draft Law on Citizen Identification taking effect. NEC Asia Pacific provides the national ID system’s biometric backbone, and Thales is a biometrics partner to VNPT, but rising demand is also bringing new players into the market.

The Asia-Pacific region is grappling with the twin challenges of high and rising fraud rates and consumer expectations for fast and smooth onboarding processes, a FICO survey shows. These trends are behind the advance of biometrics in Vietnam, but also Thailand’s attempts to launch a digital wallet, and ambitious targets for identity verification providers like Wise AI and Liquid.

India has reached 1.38 billion people registered for Aadhaar, according to new figures released by the government. The Unified Payment Interface has been used in more than 13.88 billion financial transactions, and DigiLocker is up to 300 million users. A new report shows the widespread regard in the country for the importance of digital trust.

A report from the WEF suggest that digital public infrastructure could play a major role in increasing gender parity in economic participation and access to healthcare and education. At the same time, MOSIP introduces a tool for assessing gender inclusivity in DPI and digital identity systems, developed by Oregon State University.

Arizona is making its Idemia-supplied mobile driver’s licenses acceptable as proof of age with limited disclosure using the Smart ID Verifier app for iPhones. Similarly, Ohio has made its mDL available in Apple Wallet, and also launched its own age verification app for businesses.

A fraud prevention provider used by Login.gov may have sent PII related to authentication for over 57,000 people logging onto the IRS website to unauthorized locations outside of the United States, an oversight body says. The IRS also failed to perform required continuous monitoring for an additional 600,000 interactions, potentially putting Login.gov authentication data at risk.

A Microsoft white paper on content generated and manipulated by AI is intended to spur policy-makers to action on deepfakes and AI regulation more generally, and the CDT has recommendations for generative AI developers ahead of the U.S. election. Like the political situation itself, people creating a social environment in which they are comfortable sharing fakes for LOLs are capable only of making the situation worse.

Biometric Update Managing Editor Chris Burt interviewed David Burnett this week about ZeroBiometrics’ market-ready innovation in biometrics and cryptography that delivers privacy-preserving authentication without storing any sensitive data.

The U.S. CSPC is telling people to stop using the biometric feature on gun safes from Owsoo and Cacagoo immediately. The subpar products have been found to have poor false acceptance rates, making them dangerously insecure, and demonstrating the importance of rejecting inferior biometric security products.

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Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital trust  |  identity verification  |  week in review