Biometrics adoption strategies benefit when government direction is clear

Biometrics providers have major growth opportunities ahead where there is clarity about their role. What part governments play in digital identity markets is a key theme in the news reported by Biometric Update over the past week. Government is the sole supplier in some systems, like EUDI Wallets, and a market participant in others, like the UK’s DIATF. New markets are emerging from regulatory changes, and the trust frameworks enabling those markets are maturing, but too much change creates uncertainty.

Jumio is among those sounding cautions about commercial viability in the UK, while VerifyMy and IDxLAB step up to serve a new regulatory requirement in France.

The commercial opportunity in reusable digital ID may be less in credential issuance and storage than biometric enrollment and orchestrating identity presentation.

Top biometrics news of the week

The UK’s digital identity and age assurance market remains up in arms.

The government’s planned expansion of Gov.uk into digital wallets supporting private sector interactions could boost the adoption of digital identity while hampering growth among private sector digital ID providers, according to a new forecast from Juniper.

A panel of insiders from Jumio, NatWest and CFIT convened at Pay360 warned that the government needs to consider commercial viability. But on the other side is the Tony Blair Institute, advising Gov.uk One Login be used for immigration control. Similarly, a group of 40 Labour MPs call for digital ID adoption to tackle illegal employment and tax evasion.

Part of the problem seems to be the collision of private and public sector interests in digital ID use cases like right-to-work checks. They would fall outside the original conception of Gov.uk as a system exclusively for public sector interaction, but the business benefit they provide is strictly one of compliance.

The UK government’s Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA), meanwhile, brought the register of digital identity and attribute services to the public beta stage earlier this month. The register lists services certified to the digital identity and attributes trust framework to perform such compliance checks, and the recent addition of Gov.uk One Login provided the spark for the current industry conflagration.

Age checks for access to online pornography in France now require a “double-blind” architecture to protect user privacy. The additional complexity still leaves clear roles, however, which VerifyMy and IDxLAB have partnered to fill. Yoti has signed up a French pay site, but at least one big international player would rather fight the age assurance rules in court.

Aviation and border management is one area where the enforcement of regulations has benefited from private sector innovation. Preparation for Digital Travel Credentials is underway with Amadeus pitching its “journey pass” as a way to use biometrics at each touchpoint as part of a reimagined traveller experience. In the meantime, SITA, Collins and Daon are looking to streamline different airport processes.

Eurosmart is arguing for an expert working group which could utilize industry experience to encourage adoption of the EU Digital Travel app, and the app’s integration with DTCs and the EU Digital Identity Wallet.

India’s Digi Yatra provides an example of a collaborative private-public initiative, with a government ministry coordinating industry participants. CEO Suresh Khadakbhavi tells CIO about ambitious plans to expand the “travel stack of India” in an interview.

Uganda is planning to launch five MOSIP modules, with the role of open-source software and government workers still leaving a clearly-delineated role in enrollment for biometrics providers and in service delivery for digital identity orchestrators.

Germany’s new coalition government  is planning to lean on digital identity as part of its modernization of the state. There are also expected to be opportunities in biometrics for public security.

In the U.S., a rollback of the Corporate Transparency Act shifts the responsibility for beneficial ownership reporting from businesses to their financial institutions. This means that in some situations, banks will turn to biometrics to verify beneficial ownership on their own, as part of their customer due diligence for AML compliance.

A police force in Australia has deactivated a facial recognition system supplied by Cognitec which used a legacy algorithm out of concern for demographic disparities in its accuracy.

Congratulations to the new CEOs of Au10tix, Veridos and Secunet.

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

Article Topics

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