Biometrics providers and credentials level up with new capabilities

Biometrics is a fast-evolving field about persistence, so new versions of major digital identity providers and biometric technology companies naturally drew the interest of many Biometric Update readers this week.

The CEO interviews cover IN Groupe’s acquisition of Idemia Smart Identity, Inverid’s acquisition by Signicat and Pimeyes’ new search tool. RealSense has been given its independence from Intel, and $50 million. The refresh also includes new formats and credentials coming to legacy ID and attribute systems, like eVisas in the UK and age verification implementations to replace tick-box self-assertion.

Top biometrics news of the week

Bluesky is implementing age verification and estimation from Epic Games subsidiary Kids Web Services to comply with UK regulations ahead of next week’s deadline. That means its users will have the option to confirm they are 18 or older with Yoti’s facial age estimation, which was built into KWS’ solution in 2023. Reddit chose Persona, which is partnered with Paravision on age assurance, explaining in its announcement how users’ data privacy is preserved.

The European Commission’s guidelines for online child protection are out, along with age verification software for use with EUDI Wallets from a joint venture of Scytáles and T-Systems. The software is ostensibly intended as a “white label” “blueprint” for localized versions, and will be piloted in five countries.

Signicat’s acquisition of Inverid allows for a more complete integration of NFC ID document scans into various solutions within the digital identity platform, the acquired company’s CEO and CRO told Biometric Update in an interview. The combined entity has plans to expand within Europe, where it has a dispersed workforce, but also leverage that experience to grow in other regions.

The new version of IN Groupe, post Idemia Smart Identity-merger, has synergies illustrated by the security printing elements for physical IDs and the chips embedded in modern passports and identity cards to digitalize them and include biometrics, CEO Agnès Diallo says in an interview. The combined entity’s market reach is similarly complementary, she says, inspiring optimism it can become a dominant global player in digital identity.

Pimeyes Director Giorgi Gobronidze tells Biometric Update that the company’s new video search capability could enable hundreds of thousands of content takedown requests, like its photo search tool. Gobronidze explains why he does not consider the technology biometrics, and discusses his company’s interactions with regulators and critical privacy advocates.

The cloud of uncertainty hanging over Intel’s 3D camera business has blown over, revealing a spun-out company with $50 million in funding. RealSense will expand its biometrics portfolio for integration with a range of devices and also target robotics as an independent company.

The UK completed its transition to electronic visas this week, moving to issue only digital credentials instead of biometric residence cards. This is not enough to stop the irregular migration that has plagued the nation’s job market and politics, according to a former intelligence leader and a Labour politician, who each argue a digital ID is the tool that will work.

An LSE British Politics and Policy blog post from Margie Cheesman, Aaron Martin and Weitzberg argues that the BritCard proposals represent the latest misguided attempt to use digital ID to fix a problem it can’t help. They contrast it with the GOV.UK app, which avoids the mass surveillance risks of BritCard.

Login.gov is adding support for biometric passports as an identity verification credential, and upgrading its anti-fraud protections, a program roadmap from GSA reveals. The U.S. government’s SSO platform will also accept mDLs by next March, according to the plan, through collaboration with states and NIST coordinated by the NCCOE.

The GAO says the Social Security Administration has failed to resolve cybersecurity issues it was made aware of. The failure leaves the agency, which is tasked with safeguarding Americans’ sensitive personal data, with dangerous blind spots, according to an audit report.

Liberia’s government has set up a steering committee to address a dysfunctional system for ID card issuance that some in the country are calling a national crisis. President Boakai has asked for previous contractor OSD to be retained, reiterating the importance of the biometric IDs to the country’s digital transformation.

The UN has launched an initiative called the AI and Multimedia Authenticity Standards Collaboration, led by the world’s largest standards bodies, to fight against deepfakes. Big tech and government organizations are involved too, and its first products, a pair of white papers, have been published.

Please let us know about any podcasts, opinion pieces or other content you spot and think we should share with the people in biometrics and the digital identity community, either in the comments below or through social media.

Article Topics

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