Biometrics testing for bias standardized while contracts test patience

Biometrics standards are advancing and the testing providers that use them for evaluations are growing, but investments are still subject to the vagaries of international partnerships and government budgets, as seen in the most-read stories of the week on Biometric Update. Tests of demographic differentials in biometric accuracy now have an ISO/IEC standard to rely on, while France-based test and consulting firm Fime has acquired Consult Hyperion. Separate contracts for Idemia in DRC and ACI in the Philippines have fallen apart for very different reasons, while Idemia NSS picks one up in the U.S., and DHS will be left millions of dollars short of its budget request for research and testing. NEC, meanwhile, announces an impressive new facial recognition system.

Top biometrics news of the week

NEC has launched a face biometric authentication system that can process up to 100 people per minute, by continually scanning and matching people on the move. The system is designed for crowded environments like airports, and also includes features to track people by their clothing and analyze movement patterns. It can be implemented at the network edge and integrated with infrastructure like overhead displays and AR glasses.

A $697 million ID card contract in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been cancelled, after it was revealed that a supplier agreement between Idemia and contract-holder Afritech had been misrepresented as a consortium. Idemia tells Biometric Update in an email that it still intends to collaborate with Congolese authorities to support the ID card rollout.

The American Navy has selected Idemia NSS for a fixed-price contract to supply technology which is unspecified, but appears to be biometric access control solutions for Navy facilities. The Navy has piloted Idemia’s biometric base access system, and found it dramatically increased throughput at base entrances.

The contract to print the Philippines’ national digital ID cards, held by ACI, has been cancelled. BSP terminated the contract while accusing the company of failing to deliver enough cards, refusing to comply with instructions or provide a catch-up plan, and incurring seven times more waste than the contract allowed.

The international standard for how to test and measure biometric bias, ISO/IEC 19795-10, has been unanimously approved by national standards bodies. The standard, co-authored by John Howard and Yevgeniy Sirotin and contributed to by a long list of influential biometrics researchers, is now weeks away from publication.

DHS has been allocated $91.5 million less for 2025 than it requested by the House, calling into question its ability to execute ambitious plans to expand its biometrics programs. Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee opposed the funding reduction, which hits DHS S&T’s research and development particularly hard.

Russia is planning to collect biometrics from foreigners entering the country in an attempt to crack down on crime committed by visitors from abroad and reduce the number of those staying in the country without a work permit. Migrants’ biometrics would be added to the UBS after implementation by the system’s operator, the CBT.

Adding biometrics to biographic data used in border control systems should be viewed as an investment in trade and tourism, rather than a cost, Travizory CEO Renaud Irminger tells Biometric Update in an interview. Irminger delves into the company’s work on biometric e-Visas and Electronic Travel Authorization Systems.

Fime continues an inorganic growth spurt with the acquisition of Consult Hyperion, adding digital identity consulting expertise to a testing and advisory portfolio that has already grown significantly this year. The combination improves Fime’s position serving business in digital ID, payments and smart mobility, according to CEO Lionel Grosclaude.

A report from the Center for Financial Inclusion argues that Kenya’s transition to digital ID illustrates what happens when government commitment to high-quality implementation is not balanced by adequate constraints and transparency. Idex has entered the country’s private sector ID ecosystem, with a partnership to produce biometric student ID cards.

Brazil is making progress in its digital public infrastructure rollout, with the Gov.br platform enabling access to a range of government services, and 98 percent of young children registered for legal identity. DPI will be one of four priorities for the G20’s digital economy working group as the country hosts its next meetings in Rio de Janeiro.

The end of OIX could signal the graduation of many of the ideas the organization championed – like mapping trust frameworks against each other and making digital IDs interoperable and user-controlled so they can be reused – to consensus. If not, it could mark an ominous pullback from collaboration as the market coalesces.

And lastly, former Biometric Update columnist and prominent digital identity consultant and author Heather Vescent has begun booking speaking engagements as a Cybersecurity Futurist.

Please let us know about any interviews, editorials or other content we should share with the people in biometrics and the digital identity community either in the comments below or through social media.

Article Topics

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