Biometrics demand and economic benefits look steady as turbulence threatens

Biometrics budgets for businesses and governments around the world are getting a second look as reflected in several top stories of the week on Biometric Update. Paravision and Thales announced momentum this week, however, and digital identities are boosting economies in some nations and hold the promise for more, as Biometric Update heard reporting from MOSIP Connect in Manila, and seen in NADRA’s export wing.

Top biometrics news of the week

Biometric Update examines NADRA’s role in Pakistan’s booming IT export market, as NTL serves customers around the world from Fiji to Bangladesh and Nigeria to Kenya. NADRA has also introduced a new digital credential with contactless fingerprint biometrics for user ID verification to provide access to public and private sector services. Pakistan still has some issues with its own system, however, such as getting citizens to comply with their death registration obligations.

The Philippines DICT announced the country has reached 84 million national digital ID registrations. The government is also in the midst of rolling out a government services Super App and extensive fiber network to make the ID, formerly referred to as PhilSys, more useful. Former DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy is credited with contributing to the success of all three, prior to departing the position earlier this month.

The Philippines digital ID has now been used for more than 100 million private and public sector transactions, Undersecretary for eGovernment David Almirol Jr. told MOSIP Connect 2025 in an opening keynote for the event, on this past week in Manila and co-hosted by the PSA. The winners of MOSIP’s Decode hackathon and Create initiative were awarded, and a pair of MOSIP officials explained how the competitions fit into the organization’s longer-term plans on the sidelines of Connect 2025.

The second day brought community voices to the fore through the unconference format. Verifiable credentials, migration challenges, making identity inclusion truly universal and integrations with other DPIs and DPGs were popular topics.

Liberia is up to 740,000 registered for its digital ID system as of December, and the system will soon deliver a dividend to the national economy, by removing ghost workers from government payrolls and improving service delivery. Work is ongoing to increase the number of people enrolled in the National Biometric Identification System (NBIS).

Mobile driver’s licenses advanced towards or with rollouts in Idaho, Georgia, Arkansas, Utah and Illinois, where Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias notes: “The whole world is moving that way.”

The threat of a trade war between the EU and U.S. could mean investment in digital infrastructure and digital ID as part of a larger EuroStack. The bloc is also reported to be considering withdrawing from the data transfer agreement with the U.S., adding another layer of business impact.

Idex Biometrics’ ongoing revenue struggles has prompted it to make a fundamental strategic shift and change CEOs. Catharina Eklòf held the post for only 8 months, so the move seems less of a reflection of her performance than of the company’s circumstances.

Budgets for biometrics in many areas, like Thales’ 17-year $21 million contract to provide fingerprint biometrics software to Swiss federal police are likely to remain stable.

And AI agents could also represent a market-boosting opportunity. Chetu Director of Operations Anshu Raj explores the implications of AI agents on authentication and privacy in a Biometric Update guest post. Raj argues that AI agents can help improve biometrics authentication management, particularly at scale, and recommends some best practices.

Paravision is building on the impressively low error rates shown in the DHS S&T RIVTD with its latest PAD software version, according to CPO Joey Pritikin. Paravision Liveness 2.0 cuts even those error rates by a further 90 percent, he tells Biometric Update for a sponsored post interview.

Yubico lauds Microsoft’s adoption of MFA for Azure sign-ins in a post emphasizing the persistent and high-volume phishing threat, just as Amazon announces support for passwordless authentication, including with passkeys, for Cognito. The passwordless authentication market remains busy, with moves from Key9 and AuthenTrend and a rollout by Victoria, Australia’s VicRoads.

Balancing acts between AI attacks and defenses, identity privacy and transparency will be key themes for the year ahead, SmartSearch Chief Transformation Officer Collette Smith writes in a guest post. New regulations will raise the floor for fraud defense, Smith notes, but smart organizations will use AI and related technologies to raise their ceiling.

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Article Topics

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