Biometrics speed up travel through credential digitization; adoption awaits

What do wallets, mobile driver’s licenses, and passports have in common? In digital form, these payment storage devices and travel authorization documents are identity credentials that could finally bring the power of biometrics to bear against a raft of social ills and speed up processes. Those ills may start with fraud, but they also take in proof of age, another rising trend that could finally provide the impetus for mass adoption. Leaders with Aware, Visa, Mattr and other key players shared their perspectives at the STA’s mDL showcase, and trials involving biometric technology from NEC, Facephi, Face4 and Entrust show the new credentials are ready.

The law enforcement biometrics market continues to steadily grow, meanwhile, with attendant cautionary tales.

Top biometrics news of the week

A wide range of use cases for mobile driver’s license were on display this week at the Identity and Payments Summit and mDL showcase hosted by the Secure Technology Alliance alongside the U.S. Payments Forum in San Diego, and Biometric Update reported from on-location. Governments, digital infrastructure, interoperability and understanding were identified as the main barriers to mDL adoption, and age assurance as a ramp that could potentially lift the technology over those hurdles.

Digital wallets and mDLs provide a way to make use of the assurance provided by biometrics that sidesteps most privacy concerns, new Aware CEO Ajay Amlani pointed out at the event. Visa, which unveiled a partnership with showcase sponsor Mattr this week, has a potential way to solve the interoperability puzzle.

Biometric passports remain the most authoritative ID credential most people own, and the official launch of new Ethiopian passports supplied by Toppan and a contract for Madras Security Printers to make Malawi’s hold the promise of easier travel and ID proofing for roughly 150 million people.

Passports stayed in travelers’ pockets during a recent trial of IATA’s One ID that had 40 percent shorter passenger processing times. Instead, they used face biometric technology from NEC and Facephi for flights between Hong Kong and Tokyo. SITA, a technology partner of the trial’s airline, Cathay Pacific, has revealed the results of its annual Air Transport IT survey, which shows the majority of airports plan to have both biometric check-in and bag drop operational by 2026, largely to reduce passenger processing and waiting times.

A biometric seamless travel test in Canada with technology from Face4 Systems and Entrust followed a similar process to One ID, with a W3C-compliant verifiable credential created by passengers as digital identities on their mobile phones by scanning the NFC chip in a passport.

The FBI is looking to procure mobile multimodal biometrics collection devices compatible with Android smartphones and Windows laptops. The user experience should be the same across both operating systems, and the devices should be adaptable to future requirements.

CENTRIC Researcher Helen Gibson tells Biometric Update that the EU-funded Identify Attributes Matrix Initiative is intended to help European law enforcement make accurate determinations about what data pulled from disparate sources refers to the same person. Some of the data is biometric, some not, and companies including Idemia and NEC are helping figure out how to sort it.

Idemia is also supplying its Storm ABIS to Florida to speed up forensic examinations, and a detention facility in the state is using BI2 Technologies iris biometrics. Jacksonville police are also getting new fingerprint scanners to identify illegal immigrants, just as the state volunteers local cops as ICE reinforcements.

Detroit police are accused of violating policy and misusing facial recognition, providing another potential concerning indication of a major downside to the technology’s use. Police deny that facial recognition was involved.

Uncertainty comes with new technology. Scientists have been developing a deeper understanding of DNA for 70 years since its structure was discovered by an American and UK scientist at Cambridge. NPR revisits an interview with the duo to commemorate the milestone.

Meta is working hard to argue that age assurance needs to be applied at the app store level. The company is supporting state legislation that places responsibility there and pointing to its use of facial age estimation and other tools.

AVPA ED Iain Corby testified in favor of the U.S. federal SCREEN Act at a Congressional group meeting, in part due to its application at the platforms that provide pornography themselves. Each level may have discreet reasons for increased responsibility, as the Digital Childhood Alliance calls for an end to easy access by children to predatory apps.

Please tell us about any podcasts or other content you think we should share with those in biometrics and the digital identity community, either in the comments below or through social media.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  week in review